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i A N D TH E 




LIBRA R Y OF AMERICAN HIS TOR Y 



COLUMBUS AND THE 
NEW WORLD 



BY 

JAMES w:'''bUEL, Ph. D. 

Historian and Traveler 



jfc DE LUXE LIBRARY EDITION Jk 



L«,B 



CONTENTS. 



COLUMBUS AND THE NEW WORLD. 



CHAPTER I. 



The Adversities of Columbus and his Environments — 
Spirit of the Inquisition — Chivalry of Spain — A niarvelously 
superstitious age — Intolerance and bigotry — Nativitj' of 
Columbus — The Colombo family — Among the Mediterranean 
pirates — Fury of predatory JNIoors — Columbus is shipwrecked 
— The Arch-Pirate — Columbus a sea-rover — His marriage — 
The paradise of Porto Santo — A pest of rabbits — Brilliant con- 
ceptions born on Porto Santo — Marco Polo's travels — Early 
beliefs respecting the size and shape of the earth — Previous 
discoveries of America — Story of the Zenis — Identification of 
the lands found by ancient explorers — Strange relics cast up 
by the sea — Toscanelli's commendation — Some wonderful 
stories 33-49 

CHAPTER II. 

Significance of his Name Leads Coi^umbus to Serious 
Reflections— His trip to Iceland — The Scandinavian Sagas 
— Columbus in search of assistance — The appeal to Genoa — 
The self-sufficiency of Columbus — His visit to Portugal — Sum- 
moned before a Portuguese Junta — Perfidy of King John — 
Voyage by the Portuguese— King John's ships assailed by 
demons— Anger of the king — Bartholomew sails for England 
to solicit aid — Return of Columbus to Genoa 50-59 

CHAPTER III. 

Columbus Proceeds to Spain— War for the expulsion of the 
Jloors — Columb^s halts for food at a convent — Graciously 



xxii CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

entertained by the Franciscan Father — Feudalism in the 
middle ages — Helpful counsel of Father Perez — Resolution of 
Columbus to appeal to France — Persuaded to present his 
requests to the Spanish sovereigns — Seeking royalty in the 
camp — Second marriage of Columbus — He secures an inter- 
view with the Archbishop of Spain — Brought before Ferdinand 
— The Congress of Salamanca — The Thralldom of Prelacy — 
Columbus before the Spanish Junta — -Rejection of his schemes 
— Rene-wal of his appeal to King John — Surrender of Granada 
— Second rejection of his proposals 60-74 

CHAPTER IV. • 

Materia!^ Hei^p from an Unexpected Source — Columbus 
retires to the convent of La Rabida — Epistolary appeal of 
Father Juan to Isabella — A journey through winter's snows 
• — Extraordinary devotion of the Prior — Suri'ender of the last 
Moorish stronghold — Columbus simmioned before Isabella — 
Conditions stipulated by Columbus — Indignation of the Com- 
missioners — The sun goes down upon his hopes — Daybreak of 
joy over the mountain of despair — The Queen sends a mes- 
senger to recall Columbus — The Queen concludes terms with 
Columbus — Ships and sailors ordered to be impressed for the 
voyage — Traditions of horrible specters of the tmknown sea — 
A panic in Palos — Consternation among the sailors — The 
Pinzon Brothers — Equipment of the first expedition — Ships 
engaged and the men who composed the crews — Expectations 
of Columbus 75-90 



CHAPTER V. 

Departure for the Unknown Wori^d of the Sea — Sor- 
rowing friends take their leave — Auspicious beginning of the 
voyage — Out on the raging sea — Dangers of fact and fancy — 
Fears of Portugal's interference — The flames of Tophet — 
Cowardice of the seamen— Signs of approaching land— Deflec- 
tion of the needle gives rise to fresh fears— Specters of the 
imagination — Impeded by a sea of vegetation — A false cry — 
A growing prejudice that develops into mutinous spirit — Ad- 
ditional evidence that land is not far off — Promise of reward 
— Land ! Land ! — A delirium of thankfulness — A light seen 



CONTENTS. xxlii 



flitting along an unknown shore — Who was the first real dis- 
coverer ? 91-101 

CHAPTER VI. 

Landing on thk Shores op the New V^.-^ri^d — A marvel- 
ous vision — Ceremonies of occupation — The prayer of Colum- 
bus — Intercoiirse with the natives — Descriptions of their 
appearance and customs — Believe the Spaniards to be visitors 
from heaven — Dreadful abuses of the Spaniards — Belief of 
Columbus respecting his discovery — Natives kidnaped to 
serve as guides — Columbus' adventure with a horrid monster 
— The lust for gold — Avarice and cruelty of Columbus — Dis- 
covery of other islands — Ivanding on the shores of Cuba — An 
excursion into the interior — Something about the natives — A 
visit to native villages — An embassy to a chief — Products of 
the country — Marvelous tales — Results of a visit to the 
Cacique — The mythical gold country of Babeque — The deser- 
tion of Pinzon — Wonderful stories about imaginary people — 
Capture of a native woman — Communication with the natives 
of Hayti — Customs and hospitality of the Haytians — A visit 
in state from the Cacique — Exchange of valuable presents — 
Loss of the Santa J\[aria — Generous help of the natives — 
Christianity and Haytian religion — A display of Spanish arms 
— An entertainment provided by the natives— Deternnnati on 
to found a colony in Hayti — Building of Fort La Natividad — 
Columbus counsels the colonists — Affectionate parting be- 
tween Columbus and Guacanagari — The departure for Spain. 102-132 

CHAPTER VII. 

A Meeting with the Deserter — Golden visions of Colum- 
bus — Alternating hopes and fears — -Misgivings as to Pinzon 's 
purposes — Pinzon 's story — A fight with the natives — In quest 
of the country of the Caribs — In the calm latitude — A terrible 
storm — Separation of the vessels — Despair suggests vows of 
penance — A melancholy lottery — A package which the ocean 
refuses to give up — In sight of the Azores — Saved at last — A 
shirt-tail procession — Trouble with the Portuguese — Depar- 
ture from the Azores — Another terrible storm — Demons of 
Satanic hate — Vows of penance — Safe in the providence of 
God — Arrival at the estuary of the Tagus — Reception by King 



xxiv CONTENTS. 



John — A priiicelj' entertainment — Columbus has an audience 
with the King — The mad designs of John — Scheme to rob 
Cohimbus of the fruits of his discoveries — Arrival at Palos. . . 133-152 

CHAPTER VIII. 

RECKIVIN'G Thk Pl,AUDiTS OF A GRATEFUL NATiON—Joyful de- 
monstrations in Palos — Meeting between Columbus and the 
father of La Rabida — Return of the Pinta, and disgrace of 
Pinzon — The sad story of a perfidious and ambitious man — 
Transmission to the King of reports of the discoveries — Com- 
munication with the Pope — Columbus' journey to Seville — 
Extraordinary demonstrations — The scene in Barcelona — A 
wonderful procession — Columbus in the zenith of his glory — 
Splendors of the Royal Court provided for his reception — • 
Columbus tells the story of his voyage to p-erdinand and Isa- 
bella — His dreams of yet greater triumphs — His ambition to 
reclaim the Holy Sepulchre — A glance at the conditions that 
surrounded him — Dazzled by gtories of wealth in the kingdom 
of Cathay — A glory that dimmed the luster even of royalty — 
Granted a new coat-of-arnis — Decision of the question, Who 
was first to sight land ? — Disappointment of a poor sailor — 
Other things to be accomplished — Preparations for a second 
voyage — The moral of the standing egg — King John chafing 
under lost opportimity — How the Pope settled a grave ques- 
tion — A rush of volunteers — Letters of agreement between 
Columbus and his Sovereigns — The fleet appointed to sail 
from Cadiz — A battle of intrigue and diplomacy — Spain ob- 
tains the decree of possession 153-177 

CHAPTER IX. 

Equipment of the Second Expedition — Beginning of the 
troubles which envious rivalry created — Adventurers of every 
kind join the expedition — The jealousy of Fonseca rebuked 
by Isabella — A representative of the Pope accompanies Colum- 
bus — Vicar Buyl and I'riar Perez — Other distinguished mem- 
bers of the expedition — Great demonstrations made at the 
fleet's departure — Out on the wide sea — Discovery of an Archi- 
pelago — Visit to islands of the West Indies — Among the Carib- 
bee natives — Butcher-shops where human flesh was sold — A 



CONTENTS. XXV 



horrible sight among Carib cannibals — Some of their dreadful 
customs — Myth of the Amazonian islanders — Govennnent and 
home-life of the Caribs — Lost in the gloomy forests — A fight 
with the natives — Captives who were waiting their turn to be 
eaten — A native boy having the face of a lion — Other discov- 
eries — In search of the colony left at La Natividad — A visit 
from four Caciques — Discoveries that aroused great fears — 
Story of the massacre of the garrison— Relics of the murdered 
Spaniards — Depravity of the colonists cause their destruction 
— A tale of almost inconceivable lust and avarice — Particulars 
of the massacre — The native chief falls in love — An elopement 
with a queen 1 78-205 

CHAPTER X. 

Courage that Overcame ali. Adverse Circumstances — 
Awakening to new conditions — Disappointments of the Cava- 
liers — An expedition to the gold mines — Welcomed by the 
Indians — The gold district of Cibao — A report calculated to 
deceive the Sovereigns — Comments of Ferdinand and Isabella 
— Columbus recommends enslavement of the natives — Enforc- 
ing Christianity through bondage — Columbus sends liome a 
cargo of slaves — The lust for gold unsatisfied — Sedition shows 
its horrid head — Overcoming the mutinous spirits — The star 
of Columbus begins to wane — Anxiet}' over Portugal's activity 
— Return to the gold mines of Cibao — Fertility and beauty of 
the Royal Plain — Pass of the Hidalgos — Triumphal and pom- 
pous entrance into the native villages — False security of the 
Indians — Construction of Fort St. Thomas — Abuses of the 
garrison — Outrages perpetrated upon the natives — Chief 
Caonabo arouses the Indians to vengeance — Afflictions that 
came upon the colonists — A horrible condition of affairs — 
Preparations for another expedition to the interior — A per- 
fidious act severely punished 206-230 

CHAPTER XI. 

Pursuing the Goi<den Ignis Fatuus — Columbus renews his 
quest for the kingdom of Cathay — Visit to a native village — 
Pvxploring the coast of Cuba — The gold country of Babeque — 
Other discoveries — A fight with the Indians — Generosity of 



xxvi CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

the Cubans — A curious method of fishing — Reports of people 
with tails — Startled Vjy spectral figures in the forests — Prester 
John the Magnificent — Delightful anticipations dispelled by 
harsh events — A great mistake — Discontent among the sailors 
— A Cacique teaches the law of the Golden Rule — Religion of 
the natives — Columbus tells the natives of the splendors of 
Spain — A Cacique pleads for permission to accompany Colum- 
bus—Stricken down with a strange illness — The imfaltering 
care of Father Juan — Meeting between Columbus and his 
brother — A remarkable story of adventure — A sad disappoint- 
ment 231-246 

CHAPTER XII. 

First Subjugation of the Indians —The outrages of Mar- 
garite — Horrible abuses practiced on the natives — Rebellion 
of Margarite and Vicar Buyl — They depart for Spain — A 
bloody retribution — Massacre of a garrison — Murder of the 
beautiful Catalina — Confederation of the native chiefs — Siege 
of Fort St. Thomas — A brave man's self-denial — A hazardous 
enterprise — Strategic capture of Caonabo by Ojeda — A battle 
and repulse of the natives — A communication to their Majes- 
ties — The first ship-load of slaves — Hostilities renewed — Use 
of bloodhounds in running down and killing the natives — A 
furious charge of Spanish cavalry — An appalling spectacle — 
The relentless grasp of Spain 247-264 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Enslavement of the Natives to Gratify Spanish Greed 
— The insatiate desire for gold — Terrible exactions demanded 
of the natives — The Indians compelled to pay exorbitant 
tribute in gold — The pitiless hardships imposed — The Colum- 
bian defamers at court — Circumventing the calumniators — 
Isabella orders the slaves to be returned — A criminal finds a 
native wife and fortune — The arrogance of Aguado — Efforts 
to supersede Columbus — A dreadful hurricane — Opening of 
gold mines of great value — Departvire of the vessels for Spain 
— Pressed back to the Caribbean Islands — More evidences of 
cannibalism — In the clutches of an Amazonian princess — 
Starvation and a mutinous spirit — The Admiral in danger — 
Death of Caonabo at sea — Arrival at Cadiz 265-2S0 



CONTENTS. xxvii 



CHAPTER XIV. 

PAGE 

RETURN oi? Columbus from his Second Expedition — The 
fickleness of fame — Columbus prepared to meet his accusers 
— He proceeds to Burgos to meet the Sovereigns, carrj-ing 
trophies of his expedition — Reception of Columbus by Isabella 
— Presentation of the Indian captives — Marriage of Doiia 
Juana — The urgent needs of Columbus — ^Return of Niiio with 
false reports — Awakening to sad conditions — Proposals for a 
third expedition — Dependent on the Queen's bounty — Colum- 
bus executes his will — His charitable bequests — Arrangements 
made for the third voyage — The enmity of Fonseca — The 
griefs of Isabella — Two relief ships dispatched — Columbus 
knocks down an insolent Jew — Effects of this display of anger. 281-290 

CHAPTER XV. 

Departure of the Third Expedition — Purposes of the third 
voyage — Horrible suffering in the calm latitude — Alarms of 
the superstitious crews — Discovery of the South American 
Continent — Wariness of the natives — A spat with the Indians 
— The mouth of the serpent — A terrible tidal wave — Out of 
the mouth of the serpent into the jaws of the dragon — Land- 
ing on the continent — An excursion to the interior — Enter- 
tained by a chief — On the borders of paradise — A profitable 
intercourse with the natives — In the land of pearls — Return 
to San Domingo — Columbus a physical wreck 291-302 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Conduct of the Coi^onists During Columbus' Absence — 
Fortress of the golden town — Famine among the Spaniards — 
Collecting the tribute — Founding of San Domingo — Anacaona, 
the poetess queen — A visit to the queen — Wonderful reception 
by beautiful women — A fairy scene — Presentation of the 
queen — A grand banquet — Don Bartholomew falls in love — 
Eating the iguana lizard — A fatal sham battle — Poverty and 
crime at Fort Isabella — The natives forced to labor for the 
Spaniards — A system of fortifications — Effects of converting 
the natives to Christianity — Baptism of a chief — A chief's 
wife debauched by an officer — Destruction of a chapel — Con- 
spiracy of the natives discovered — Capture of fourteen Caciques 



xxviii CONTENTS. 



— Execution of two Chiefs — The rebellion of RoUlaii — Stirring 
up the natives to make war on Bartholomew — Arrival of the 
supply ships — A conspiracy to massacre the Spaniards — De- 
struction of Indian villages— Capture of the rebellious Chiefs 
— A terrible condition of affairs 303-321 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The Conspiracy of Roi^dan Assume.s Dangerous Propor- 
tions— His quarters in the sensual paradise of Xaragua — The 
rebels miexpectedly reinforced — Roldan's duplicity — Allur- 
ing inducements — Temporizing with a rebel — Columbus 
deeply distressed — Ojeda's expedition to South America — A 
fight for the hand of the native princess — The execution of 
Moxica — Columbus superseded by Bobadilla — Fettered with 
his brother he is cast into a dungeon — Brave in the hour of 
adversity — Columbus sent to Spain loaded with chains — His 
reception by Isabella — Substantial token of his confidence — 
A touching interview with the queen — Deposed from the gov- 
ernorship of Hispaniola — Columbus is superseded by Ovando 
^Dreams of conquest and the reclamation of Jerusalem — 
Magnificence of Granada 322-339 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Preparations for a Fourth Voyage — Purposes of the last ex- 
pedition — Disappointment and chagrin of Don Diego — De- 
parture of the fleet — Refused permission to land at Hispaniola 
— A fearful tempest — Destruction of the ships of Ovando, and 
loss of Bobadilla and Roldan — Providential escape of Colum- 
bus — Resumption of the voyage — Weapons, implements and 
costumes of the Guana jans — Stories of a great nation — Meet- 
ing with natives of Central America — Voyage along the coast 
of Honduras — Frightful appearance of the Indian.s — Safe from 
the storm — Magicians of the Darien coast — Death threaten- 
ings of a waterspout — Columbus exorcises the spirits of the 
storm — A moment of extraordinary peril — A visit from a 
treacherous Chief — A military post estaljlished — Plot to burn 
the ships and destroy the Spaniards— Perilous undertaking of 
two Spanish spies — Visit to the Palace of Ouibian — Sur- 
rounded by human skulls — Attacked by the Chief's son — A 
desperate expedient— Battle with the Indians— Massacre of 



CONTENTS. XXIX 



eleven Spaniards — A marvelous escape — Escape of the In- 
dian prisoners — Suicide of a body of captives — Extraordinary 
exploit of a Biscayan — Relief and rescue of the beleaguered 
garrison — Departure from Veragua — Columbus sees a vision 
— Prostrated by disease 340-359 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Departure oe the Ii^l-fated Expedition — Accumulating 
misfortunes — Crazy condition of the ships — A letter reflecting 
the Admiral's despair — The ships grounded on the coast of 
Jamaica — A desperate situation — A brave man found for the 
occasion — Mendez undertakes an ocean passage in a canoe— 
A journey of incomparable hazard — Successful accomplish- 
ment of his mission — A meeting of the crew — Secession of De 
Porras — Conspiracy to kill Columbus — The bravery of Bar- 
tholomew — Indians forced to attempt a passage to Hispaniola 
— Horrible cruelty of the mutineers — De Porras compelled to 
return to the shore — He incenses the natives by acts of vio- 
lence — The Indians awed by an eclipse of the moon — An- 
other meeting dispelled by the sight of a ship — Hope of re- 
lease gives place to despair — De Porras prepares to attack 
Columbus — A battle with the mutineers — Valor of Don Bar- 
tholomew — Defeat of the rebels and capture of De Porras — 
Relief at last — The return to San Domingo — Columbus joy- 
fully received 360-375 

CHAPTER XX. 

Abuses and Horrors undp:r Ovando's Rule — The revenues 
of Columbus are wasted and he is left penniless^-Story of the 
adventurers who accompanied Ovando — Affairs on the island 
during the absence of Columbus — Hard labor and famine 
decimate the colonists — The Indians reduced to slavery under 
the lash — Pitiful tales of their hardships — Dying by the way- 
side — Invasion of Xaragua — Inhuman atrocities — Groundless 
complaints — Hospita1)le reception by Queen Anacaona — The 
damnable plot of Ovando — A frightful massacre of the de- 
fenseless natives — Persecution and death of Cotabanama — 
Retribution that only brought the Indians to more dreadful 
punishment — Columbus sails for Spain — His efforts to find re- 



XXX CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

dress for his wrongs — Too weak to walk, he is borne on a litter 
from his ship — Though failing rapidly, his ambitious spirit 
still aspires to other achievements 376-3S7 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Last Days ok Columbus— The world's lack of appreciation — 
The true measure of greatjiess — A victim to envy, malice and 
avarice — The friends that remained steadfast to the end — Per- 
sistent efforts to recover the rights of which he had been 
basely defrauded — The mendacity of Ferdinand — Day after 
day of vain pleading brings the great Admiral nearer his 
grave — The last sad hours of Isabella — Poor heart, broken 
with an accumulation of unbearable griefs, she lays down the 
crown — Her death and sepulture — Columbus thus loses a 
great friend — He is now only a broken-down old man, who is 
no longer an object of interest — A pathetic appeal to the 
honor of a perfidioiis king — Hope long deferred maketli the 
heart sick — The last golden dream of the dying Admiral — 
Death of Columbus — The infamous tactics of Ferdinand 
prove successful — Pompous funeral ceremonies, a poor dumb 
show of kingly ingratitude 3SS-403 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Careers of the Colujibian Descendants— The perfidy of 
Ferdinand continues — The heirs of Columbus are denied the 
rights and benefits conferred by will — Presentation of the 
claims of Don Diego — Advantageous marriage of Diego — He 
is permitted to bear the title of Admiral — Contention over ' 
the governorship of the West Indies — The courts decide in 
his favor — He departs for the Indies and assumes the vice- 
royalty — Fonseca's war against Diego — Death of Don Bar- 
tholomew — Introduction of slaves from Africa — Career of the 
other descendants — Death of Don Luis — The ancient house 
of Cuccaro 404-414 

CHAPTER XXIIL 

Discovery and Conquest oe Mexico — Vasco da Gama finds 
a sea route to India — His reception by the Zamorin — Rivalry 
between Spain and Portugal — Spain's efforts to colonize the 



CONTENTS. xxxi 

PAGE 

West Indies — fhe conquest of Cuba — Hernando Cortez the 
wild rover — Founding of Havana — Cortez made secretary to 
Valasquez — A remarkable escapade — Cortez placed in com- 
mand of an exploring expedition — He reaches the shores of 
Mexico — Story of his exploit of subjugation — On the shores 
of Yucatan — A battle with the natives — Terrible slaughter of 
Indians — Cortez marries a native Indian 415-427 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Emissaries of Montezuma Visit Cortez — Hospitably treated 
by the natives — An interview with the Indian governor — 
Cupidity excited by displays of gold — Montezuma loads 
Cortez with presents — Decision to march upon the Mexican 
capital — A pretense to convert the country to Christianity — A 
council set up by Cortez — In the chief city of the Totonacs — 
Cortez gathers a native army — Custom of sacrificing human 
victims — Bloody religion of the Aztecs — The place and means 
of sacrifice — An act of astonishing perfidy — Indian maidens 
become wives to the Spaniards — Destruction of Totonac idols 
— Acceptance of the Catholic religion — Cortez destroys his 
ships — The conquest entered upon 428-440 

CHAPTER XXV. 

The March to Mexico — A wonderful country — Imposing 
architecture and beautiful fields — Meeting with the Tlascalans 
— A bloody battle follows — Effects of the artillery fire — Cortez 
in great danger — One hundred thousand natives against four 
hundred Spaniards — A frightful slaughter — Again assailed by 
a still greater force — The slaughter is repeated — An alliance 
formed with the Tlascalans 441-450 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

A Triumphai, March — Cortez acquaints himself with the re- 
sources of the empire — Montezuma sends many valuable 
presents — Cortez is requested to withdraw from Mexican soil 
— His determination to subjugate the country is thereby con- 
ceived — Obsequious messages from Montezuma — Massacre 
of the Cholulans — The mighty temples of Cholula — Magni- 
tude of the city — A luxurious country — First sight of the 



xxxii CONTENTS. 

PACK 

Mexican capital — A scene of bewildering splendor — Appear- 
ance of the Emperor, Montezuma — The Spaniards welcomed 
to Mexico — Cortez presses request that liimian sacrifices be 
abandoned — Fear inspired by firing of cannons 451-462 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

Thk vSpaniards are; Placed in Jeopardy — Cortez visits the 
palace — The great pyramid of human sacrifice — A Christian 
chapel set wp — Suspicion aroused — Montezuma seized as a 
hostage — Burning of native chiefs in the market-place — The 
Spanish build brigantines to facilitate escape — Resolved to 
overthrow the bloody religion of Mexico — Cortez meets and 
defeats a force of Spaniards sent against him — His force in- 
creased by the prisoners taken — A slaughter of Mexicans while 
at religious devotions — A furious attack upon the Spaniards — 
Wounding of Montezuma — Hand-to-hand fight on the tower 
— The Spaniards retreat through a hail of arrows — A night of 
terrible agony — Forty Spaniards taken prisoners and sacrificed 
to Mexican gods 463-478 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

The Flower Glory Plucked from the Bed of Defeat 
— Cortez's first effort ends disastrously — Recruits an army 
from the Totonacs — Induces another independent expedition 
to join him — A plague of smallpox — Renews the siege of 
IMexico — A battle upon the lake — The Spaniards fall into a 
trap — Another gory sacrifice of prisoners — Starvation com- 
pels resort to cannibalism — Capture of the Emperor — A noble 
sovereign — Honors follow the siege — Torture of Guatemozin 
— Mexicans are reduced to slavery — Reconstruction of the 
capital — Complete conquest of the nation — Suspicious death of 
Cortez's wife — Fatal rebellion of Oled — A march characterized 
by incredible sufferings — Executions on the waj- — Cortez em- 
barks for Cuba — Accused by his enemies — Reduced to poverty 
and shame — The last days of Cortez — His remains often 
transferred 479-497 



COLUMBUS AND THE NEW WORLD. 



CHAPTER I. 

The story of Columbus is at once an epic and an elegy ; 
a narration of bold conception, persistent courage, heroic 
attainment, mingled with the gall of national ingratitude 
and the malevolence of personal jealousies. The adven- 
tures of the Homeric Ulysses were not more illustrious with 
valor ; the afflictions of Niobe were not more tearful with 
despair. East and west of his life there were bitterness and 
shadows : radiant Hope tip-toeing on the pedestal of won- 
drous accomplishment, and Faith bowing with grief before 
envious and invidious rivalry. No character in the world's 
history was ever more highly honored for chivalrous achieve- 
ment ; none more maligned by perfidy or oppressed by the 
spitefulness of malice. He was a product of the brave days 
of old, yet was he a victim to the spirit that gave birth to 
intolerance and persecution ; for the heroism that sought a 
reclamation of the holy sepulcher ; that produced Ruy Diaz 
Campeador (the Cid) ; that measured lances with Moham- 
med-al-Nasir on the decisive and bloody field of Las Navas 
de Tolosa, was twin brother to that purblind theopathy 
that established and energized the Inquisition. 

If we consider the slavishly superstitious, the intolerantly 
bigoted, the audaciously savage age in which he lived, 
which was characterized by the most desperate impulses, we 
3 33 



V'-*r 



34 COLUMBUS. 

will be prepared to understand and to appreciate the dis- 
position and proclivities of Columbus ; to applaud his 
courage, and to condone his vices. For he was not without 
human frailties, as will be shown, but these were national 
— medieval — rather than personal ; errors of the times 
rather than passions peculiarly his own. His was an age 
when so-called civilization saw no wrong in banishing Jews 
and confiscating their property to convert it to holy purposes ; 
which believed that true piety and loyalty to God were best 
manifested by burning heretics at the stake as awful ex- 
amples, or by torturing the impious until they confessed 
the vice of their unbelief ; " for," as answered Torquemada, 
" were it not better to sanctify men through afflictions of .>, 
the flesh than that they be suffered to continue in their 
evil ways to the loss of their souls and their damnation 
through all eternity ? " 

Cruel as these horrific measures were, and barbarous as 
these beliefs appear to us now, they were not the results of 
human depravity or moral debasement ; so far from this be- 
ing true, the people were wondrously devout, and it was the 
intensity of their religious, pietistical fervor that led them 
to adopt extreme methods for the conversion of all men to 
the true faith, for they honestly believed that this would 
alone secure for them salvation and a beatific condition 
after death. " What," argued they, " is the suffering of the 
body on this earth, compared with the results that affect tlie 
endless life in that world to come ? " They accordingly ac- 
cepted literally that divine injunction which demanded, or 
required, the sacrifice of eye or hand should they offend, 
and gave it that broader significance which to them justi- 
fied a sacrifice of the sinful by any means howsoever cruel. 

Though we cannot excuse the slavery that tormented for 
opinion's sake, yet it is not entirely just to hastily condemn 
the spirit of the masses, whose pious convictions gave crea- 



THE NEW WORLD. 35 

tion to the Inquisition ; for no single Church bears all the 
odium of persecution, any more than any one people is 
chargeable with the crime of bigoted intolerance. There 
have been transition periods in the life of all beliefs, and 
of all denominations, during which the dominant sect has 
shown jealousy and injustice. When the time shall come 
that such a spirit is dead, then may we conclude that there 
is no difference of opinion, and that the lion and the lamb 
have laid down in perpetual truce, and universal, enduring 
peace hath possessed the world. 

With this understanding of the animating ambitions of the 
times, I beg the reader will regard the beliefs and acts of 
Columbus, since to present a faithful history of his life it 
is necessary to record many facts which would otherwise 
put to shame the merited fame which he won, and the re- 
sults which left us such a glorious heritage — Columbia. 

As the greatest men in the world's history have, as a rule, 
risen from obscurity, Columbus, who perhaps conferred the 
largest benefits upon mankind, was not an exception, but 
rather a conspicuous exemplification of the assertion. For 
so lowly was his birth that little information has been pre- 
served respecting his youth, while his nativity, like the place 
of his final sepulture, must forever remain a question of 
contention. The time of his birth is equally a matter of con- 
jecture, various dates being assigned between the years 1435 
and 1448, though the preponderance of evidence points to 
the former, which we shall accordingly adopt. Cuccaro, in 
Montferrat, and Savona, pretend to the honor of his birth, 
but the place that with best reason claims his nativity is 
Genoa, which was probably also the birthplace of his father, 
whose name was Dominic Columbus, the Latin orthography, 
or Colombo, as it is written in Italian, or Colon, as it is 
called in the Spanish. Dominic married a lassie named 
Susana, who was daughter to one James Fantanarossa, of 



36 COLUMBUS. 

the village of Bassago, who brought him a small income, 
but so inadequate to his needs that immediately after mar- 
riage he moved to the neighborhood of Genoa, where he set 
up in a small way as a wool-comber, employing one work- 
man and a single apprentice. The house in which he thus 
began business, which was at once residence and shop, was 
just outside the limits of the municipality, and it was here 
that Christopher was born, and also his three brothers, Bar- 
tholomew, Pelligrino, and James afterwards called Don Diego. 
There was also a daughter, who married a pork butcher 
named Bavarello, of the vicinity, but her name and place of 
nativity are unknown. 

The first several years of Dominic's married life were 
spent in the house in the Genoese suburbs, but he after- 
wards rented the building to an innkeeper, and moved into 
a somewhat more pretentious house which was located at 
No. i66 Mulcento Street, where he continued the business 
of weaver, but with indifferent success. It is maintained 
by many of Christopher's biographers that he was descended 
from a noble family that had been scattered by domestic 
dissensions, such as were very common among the Italians 
in the early centuries, and very good evidence is presented 
in support of this claim. While the occupation of wool- 
comber represented a great condescension in one who had 
belonged to the noblesse rank, we know that Christopher 
had a grand-uncle who held an admiral's commission in the 
service of Rene, duke of Anjou, which was the most illus- 
trious of all engagements in that day, and was open only 
to those who had some rightful claim to distinguished an- 
cestry. But that Columbus "was a descendant of the great 
Lombard family, as his most enthusiastic admirers declare, 
there is exceeding doubt, amounting to denial. 

That Dominic was a kind father, and thoroughly appre- 
ciative of the importance of education, is attested by the 



THE NEW WORLD. 37 

fact that when Christopher, his eldest child, had reached 
the age of ten years, instead of putting him to service, 
where he might be helpful towards increasing the slender 
income, which indeed little more than sufficed for the sup- 
port of the now considerable family, he was sent to be 
schooled at the University of Papia. Since the branches 
which distinguished that famous school were natural philos- 
ophy, astrology and geography, the conclusion is irresistible 
that young Christopher must have had some previous in- 
struction to qualify him to enter upon such advanced studies. 
At this university he continued for a period of three years, 
though there were intervals in his attendance during which 
he was an assistant to his father in the factory, so that he 
acquired a fairly good knowledge of the trade and might 
afterwards have followed it, as did his brothers, but for an 
incident that lifted his feet from the dull path of obscurity 
and planted them in the road that led to ineffable glory, of 
which we, more than his own countrymen, are the chief 
beneficiaries. 

Young Christopher did not improve his advantages to 
their utmost, for he was more diligent with conceits for 
wider fields of adventure than in application to his text- 
books, a condition which brought him into antagonism with 
his teachers, that resulted either in his expulsion, or volun- 
tary, but sudden and secret, withdrawal from the school. 
We may, without injustice to his memory, infer that he 
was guilty of conduct which led to his peremptory dismissal 
from the university, since history tells us that he ran away 
and took engagement as a cabin boy on a vessel lying at the 
port of Genoa. To a youth full of animation and a cour- 
ageous spirit, the dashing waves that beat up in restless flow 
against the rugged beaches, and poured their monody of 
complainings at confinement in his ear, there must have 
come a longing to sail away behind his little world that 



38 COLUMBUS. 

kissed the horizon scarce five leagues beyond the green hills 
of the shore. 

To one of such a temperarrtent as Christopher later re- 
vealed, there must have been an incentive to adventure in 
the wild stories of heroism on the sea, when every day had 
its savage incident of battle with pirates ; and when every 
sailor who came to Genoa sat on the quays, the center of 
admiring crowds, telling his hair-breadth escapes, and mov- 
ing youthful ambition by descriptions of strange lands 
visited between where the sun rises up out of the Mediter- 
ranean, and the blue mountains of the west, where he sinks 
down in dreamy slumber. All around him there were 
memories of valorous examples, for the fiery ardor of the 
Crusaders had not yet burned out. Fresh glories were 
being Avon by brave spirits that dared the fury of predatory 
Moors, whose ravages spread over the sea, and Avhose gilded 
crescents tipped lofty masts in bold defiance of the cross. 
Fortune and fame seemed to await the courageous, who 
while fighting for religion made spoils their reward, and 
thus the Mediterranean became a sea of battle, a rendez- 
vous for the desperate, the daring and the adventurous. 

History has not preserved the facts connected with his 
first maritime service, yet our small knowledge respecting 
his conduct, gathered from intimations made in subse- 
quent letters to friends, leads to the belief that he shipped 
with a crew most likely bound upon some piratical enter- 
prise in the Levant. This suspicion is founded upon two 
incidents, the particulars of Avhich are so vaguely hinted 
at in his letters that they afford good reason for the belief 
that he was connected with Archipelago Corsairs. He ad- 
mits having participated in at least one bloody engagement, 
and concerning another De Lorgues, his most flattering 
biographer, says : " In one of the combats, which has not 
been retraced by history, he received a deep wound, the 



THE NEW WORLD. 39 

cicatrix of which, though long forgotten, reopened towards 
his latter years, and endangered his life," On another oc- 
casion he was engaged in a naval fight which resulted in the 
destruction of his vessel, and left him struggling in the 
water with only a spar between him and death. With good 
fortune, however, he contrived to reach the shore in safety, 
Providence having reserved him for a noble purpose. This 
last adventure is not well attested, and may be an apocry- 
phal account by some essayist on morals not thoroughly 
veracious, yet the story is not an improbable one. But as 
Columbus refused to his death to make any statement con- 
cerning his Mediterranean service — when he had every 
reason to do so had it been patriotic — and since the com- 
merce of that sea in his time was so joined with piracy as 
to leave the two professions scarcely distinguishable one 
from the other, honesty compels the presumption, if it does 
not confirm the belief, that several years of his life were 
spent with his superiors exacting tribute from merchantmen, 
and also in waging war against Moorish freebooters who in- 
fested the Levant. 

Of the distinguished relatives of Christopher there were 
two who might have naturally led him to an adoption of 
such a career. One of these, who is known to history as 
the elder Columbus, most probably a grand-uncle, bore a 
captain's commission from Louis XL of France, who went 
so far beyond the limits of recognized duty as to win for 
himself the title of Arch Pirate. He is represented as a 
man of almost unexampled recklessness, and of being noted 
no less for his cruelty than for his boldness. Another kins- 
man, supposed to have been also a grand-uncle, was Colombo 
el Mozo, whose fame as a pirate rivals that of the elder. 
After achieving a wonderful renown by acts of incredible 
valor in the wars of the Genoese Republic, he fitted and 
armed a considerable fleet of his own and sailed against the 



40 COLUMBUS. 

Venetians, many of whose ships he destroyed after possess- 
ing himself of their cargoes. Subsequently he went against 
the pirates that patroled the African coast in quest of 
prizes, and delivered such decisive blows as practically to 
break up the industry in that section, but only to transfer 
it, however, to other parts of the sea. 

After continuing for some years in a subordinate position, 
and having attained to manhood, Christopher became such 
a competent navigator that he obtained command of a ves- 
sel and sailed out of the Mediterranean, on cruises to lands 
of the northeast, especially to Spain, France and England. 
The known facts concerning his early life are so meager that 
we must rest upon the very few and brief disclosures made 
in his " Book of Prophecies," and these are scarcely more 
than the merest intimations of a very few of his acts, so that 
we cannot present his career either chronologically or with 
any attempt at completeness. 

About the year 1470, Christopher took up his abode in 
Lisbon, whither his brother Bartholomew had gone a year 
before, having quitted his trade of wool-carding to become 
a cosmographer. The inference is gained from this known 
circumstance, that Christopher and Bartholomew had joined 
interests and were pursuing the same studies and with prob- 
ably identical ambitions ; for Christopher, besides being a 
navigator, began drawing charts at a fairly early age ; and 
these were no doubt used by Bartholomew in illustration of 
his theories respecting the constitution of the system of 
worlds. It was this study that undoubtedly led to his con- 
ception of the earth's shape, and his belief that the India 
of Marco Polo might be reached by a voyage towards the 
west. 

Columbus, as we shall henceforth call him, was only a short 
while in Lisbon before he saw a most bewitchingly beauti- 
ful lady while attending mass in the Church of All Saints, 



THE NEW WORLD. 41 

and immediately lost his heart to the fair enchantress. He 
directly sought an introduction, and at the first interview 
rejoiced to discover that his attentions met with favor 
which encouraged him to press a lover's suit. It was not long 
after his meeting with the lady that he heard from her 
lips the affecting story of her life. Her name was Dofla 
Felippa de Perestrello, one of the three daughters whose 
father had once been a grandee, of both fame and fortune. 
He had been a successful navigator, a large ship owner, 
and had rendered such valuable services to Portugal that 
Prince Henry rewarded him with the Governorship of Porto 
Santo, a fertile island near Madeira, off the northwest coast 
of Africa and on the route to the Canaries. A flourishing 
colony was here established by his endeavors, and large 
estates set in cultivation which were bestowed upon him as 
permanent grants from the crown. It was on this beauti- 
ful and prolific island that Doila Felippa and her sisters 
were born, and here they spent their girlhood amid sur- 
roundings dreamy, luxurious and ecstatic. The breath 
of perpetual summer was here redolent with the perfume 
of flower, and fruit, and wildwood, where an orchestra of 
gorgeously-plumaged birds filled the sensuous air with un- 
ceasing music, such as wakes the heart to blissful realiza. 
tion, and makes life as sweet as a delightful sleep vision. 
Ten years, nearly twenty years, thus passed in the splen- 
dors of contentment before trouble invaded this bower 
of acadian delight, and drove them from a garden which 
peris might have envied. In an evil hour a number of 
rabbits were imported into the island, without thought of 
the harm which these innocent-appearing animals might 
work, but they directly propagated with such amazing 
fecundity that in an almost incredibly brief time they be- 
came pests which resisted every effort for their destruction. 
Prolific as were the crops, so great was the destruction of 



42 COLUMBUS. 

these animals that the raising of any kind of vegetable be- 
came an impossibility and the colony was finally forced to 
abandon the island to escape starvation. Sigftor Perestrello, 
who in the meantime had invested all his means in Porto 
Santo, thus found himself literally brought to poverty 
through the ravages of rabbits, and removing to Lisbon, 
with the small remnant of his fortune, died shortly after his 
return, leaving his children to the care of some wealthy 
relatives of that city. 

This narrative, following the facts as recorded by nearly 
all of the Columbian biographers, may be amended to ad- 
vantage by opposing to the general statement the theory 
that since Bartholomew Mofiis de Perestrello colonized 
Porto Santo as early as 1420, he must have died upon the 
island, leaving his government to Pedro Perestrello, his son, 
who was father to the beautiful Doila Felippa, otherwise 
she must have been too old for a fair wedding, and could not 
have been the lovely woman that captured our ambitious 
Genoese navigator at first sight. But whatever the facts, it 
is true that after a reasonably long courtship Columbus 
married Felippa, who, though possessed of small patrimony, 
brought her husband no mean distinction, for she was one 
of the first ladies of Lisbon, and was of great advantage in 
extending his acquaintance among influential people, partic- 
ularly the nobility. 

We do not know how long he remained in Lisbon pur- 
suing his profession as a cosmographer, but certainly the 
period was not great, for his restless ambition would not 
permit him to continue a quiet employment, and thus we 
learn of voyages projected and performed by him to other 
lands ; but these were unsuccessful, because he retired to 
the uninviting estates of his wife on Porto Santo, which 
poverty alone would have induced him to do, and there his 
first child, which he named Diego, was born, 



THE NEW WORLD. 43 

In this singularly quiet retreat, whence the first colonists 
had been driven by a pest of rabbits, Columbus conceived 
bolder schemes than had ever before moved him to ambi- 
tious undertakings. In poverty his mind found relaxation 
from the worriments of his former surroundings, and in- 
tensified his aspirations. His passion for the glory which 
feats at arms invest gave place to projects that contemplated 
beneficent results to all the world. Here he read with re- 
newed interest the works of Ptolemy, the first geographer, 
of Aristotle, Strabo and Pliny, and studied with the keenest 
zest Cardinal Aliaco's ** Cosmographia," in which science, 
superstition and absurd conceits were equally blended, to 
the confusion of truth. But his reflections and aspirations 
were most largely promoted by the travels of Marco Polo, 
and of Sir John Mandeville, whose narratives of adventures 
in the far east, in a kingdom called Cathay, and in the won- 
derful country of Tartary, stirred him with a new ambition, 
and lifted him from his impoverished surroundings to a 
realm of idealism — of dreamy splendor. 

Before reading the astounding revelations of Polo and 
Mandeville, picturing a land of fabulous wealth and royal 
aggrandizement, Columbus had arrived at a theory respect- 
ing the earth's shape, and had become convinced of its 
sphericity. Now his resolution suddenly became fixed to 
confirm this belief and at the same time to find a water-way 
to the rich kingdom of the Tartar Khan. 

It was given to Columbus to demonstrate, but not to 
originate, the theory of the globular shape of the earth. 
Indeed, in this concept he was anticipated by writers of 
antiquity, just as he was preceded by voyagers to the 
Western Hemisphere many hundred years before his time. 
Aristotle and Strabo were in accord respecting the earth's 
rotundity, and only differed in their estimates of its size, 
the former being far wrong in his underestimation of the 



44 COLUMBUS. 

circumference, while the latter's computation was very 
nearly correct, viz., 377°. Marinus, of Tyre, a geographer 
of great renown, of the eleventh century, also believed in 
the globular shape of the earth, and fixed its circumference 
at about 450°, while Ptolemy, in the twelfth century, dis- 
puted the claims of Marinus only by reducing the actual 
circumference about one-fourth. Columbus inclined to the 
belief of Ptolemy, estimating, as he did, that only one- 
seventh of the earth was water ; and this supposition led 
him to believe that Cipango, of Marco Polo, was not more 
than three thousand miles westward of Portugal, whereas 
the real distance to that country — believed to be Japan — 
is by water little short of fifteen thousand miles. 

If Columbus was, as represented by nearly all his biog- 
raphers, a student of the ancient writers, or geographers, 
he must have been impressed by the many allusions made 
by these to lands lying far westward of the Pillars of Her- 
cules (straits of Gibraltar). Virgil is supposed to have re- 
ferred to such lands in the sixth bookof the^neid : " Jacet 
extra sidera tellus," a free translation of which may read : 
" Beyond the horizon lies a country." 

In Strabo's Dc Situ Orbis (1472) is to be found a clear 
expression of belief in the existence of a large country be- 
yond the Atlantic, which he says may possibly compare 
with Spain or India. Besides the general views advanced 
by Ptolemy, there must have met the attention of Columbus 
the conflict of theories between that great Alexandrian 
geographer and Pomponius Mela, in which the former urged 
that discoveries be pursued east and west, while the latter 
maintained that better results would follow lines of explora- 
tion north and south, for by this philosopher, as well as by 
Columbus himself, the world was supposed to be pear- 
shaped. As early as the fifth centurj^ Macrobius, a Roman, 
declared that the earth was composed of four continents, 



THE NEW WORLD. 45 

two of which remained to be discovered, and this theory- 
had several distinguished disciples preceding the Colum- 
bian age. Similar views, but somewhat more specific, and 
pointing towards a new world beyond the Atlantic, were 
expressed by Roger Bacon, Albertus Magnus, and Vincen- 
zius, all before the fourteenth century. 

In addition to the theories which gave creation to the 
idea of a western continent long before the time of Colum- 
bus, there were not wanting evidences supporting the claim 
that this unknown country had been many times visited and 
described. A story was told, first by an anonymous writer, in 
about 1482, and afterwards repeated and adopted by several 
creditable authors, to the effect that a Spanish pilot named 
Sanches, while attempting a passage between Madeira and 
the Canaries, was driven out of his course by a storm and 
landed on the shores of an island said to have been Hayti. 
Subsequently this pilot came to Lisbon and found lodgment 
with Columbus, to whom he related the facts and in whose 
house he died. It is also declared, by not a few reliable 
writers, that John Costa Cortereal made a voyage west- 
ward and reached the ice-bound coast of Newfoundland in 
the year 1463, and was followed thither by his brother a 
year later, on which voyages, however, they both perished. 
Niccolo Zeni, or Zeno, towards the close of the fourteenth 
century, started on a voyage from Venice in quest of new 
lands beyond Hercules' Pillars, and after sailing among the 
islands of the west for nearly one year, became pilot to an 
island chief named Zichmni, where he was some time 
afterwards joined by his brother, Antonio. Four years 
later Niccolo died in a country called Frieslanda, but An- 
tonio continued in the service of Zichmni ten years longer, 
at last returning to Venice, bringing not only an account of 
a strange world beyond the Atlantic, but also maps, letters, 
etc., referring to the country. It was not, however, until 



46 COLUMBUS. 

1558 that a descendant of the Zenis discovered these valu- 
able documents and caused them to be published, accom- 
panied by a narrative of the voyages. After a thorough 
study of the subject the following names have been identi- 
fied on the Zeni map : Egronelant, Greenland ; Islanda, 
Iceland ; Estland, the Shetland Islands ; Frisland, the 
Faroe group ; Markland, Nova Scotia ; Estotiland, New- 
foundland ; Drogeo, coast of North America, about Labra- 
dor ; Icaria, Ireland. Long anterior to this (270 B. C.) there 
was an account, incorporated in ancient geographies, of a 
voyage by the Grecian navigator, Pytheas, to unknown 
lands of the far west, and a map was drawn by Lelewel 
showing the discoveries of Pytheas, upon which is repre- 
sented the island of Atlantis, and the shores of a country 
which corresponds with Brazil. 

Among other voyagers who are said to have visited the 
new world before the time of Columbus was a Pole named 
John Scolvus, or Kolno, who, while in the service of 
Denmark, in 1476, was on the coast of Labrador ; and a 
Dieppe navigator named Cousin, who, while bound for some 
point on the coast of Africa, Avas blown far out to sea and 
reached South America in 1488. And on a chart prepared 
by the Pizigani brothers, dated 1367, there appear islands 
which may be identified with Madeira, the Azores, the 
Canaries, and also two islands, called respectively " Antilla " 
and " De la man Satanaxio," which are undoubtedly the 
same as Cuba and Hiiyti, while some knowledge of the two 
Americas is implied. 

Besides these testimonies supporting Columbus in his 
belief that land, or India, might be reached by sailing 
directly westward, there were other evidences, though less 
convincing. On more than one occasion pieces of wood, 
rudely carved, had been picked up on the coast of Madeira, 
and on the shores of the Azores had been found very large 



THE NEW WORLD. 47 

pine trees of an unknown species washed up by the sea. 
Columbus had also been told that on the isle of Flowers there 
had been found on the strand the corpses of two men of a 
race which none of the islanders had ever before seen. But 
this story, like that told by Martin Vincente, of finding a 
piece of carved wood more than thirteen hundred miles 
west of Europe ; and of Antonio Leme, who claimed to have 
discovered a large island five hundred miles west of Madeira, 
is undoubtedly apocryphal, and comparable to many prepos- 
terous stories current at that time. Historians seem to be 
unmindful of the fact that there is no ocean current sweeping 
the American shores that would carry objects to the Azores 
or Madeira ; and if there was such a current bodies of men 
would not be preserved, even in salt water, for a time 
necessary to drift them such a distance. Some have thought 
that long-prevailing winds from the west might have wafted 
these curious relics of a land beyond the Atlantic to the 
shores where they were found, but this supposition is as 
improbable as is the story of St. Brandan, then current, of 
having visited an island to the west that was peopled by 
demons and the ghosts of men drowned at sea. 

But absurd as were many of the tales told by the supersti- 
tious and unveracious sailors, they doubtless had more or 
less effect upon Columbus, who was not disposed to reject 
the improbable when it might be turned to his advantage, 
either in strengthening his own faith, or helping to spread 
belief in a western passage to India in others. 

The age in which Columbus lived was not one of unbounded 
liberty of either speech or conscience, and a degree of cir- 
cumspection was necessary in putting forth any theory that 
controverted the opinions of the times, for otherwise public 
avowal was likely to be followed by public condemnation. 
For this reason Columbus acted with a discretion which 
showed that he was no less adroit than opinionated ; appre- 



4^ C0LUMi3tf:^. 

ciating the influence of scientists, and having already learned 
the views of Paul Toscanelli, the most distinguished Italian 
scientist of that time, through a letter which the latter had 
written to the King of Portugal, Columbus made bold to 
crave an expression of Toscanelli's opinion respecting his 
scheme. Probably the result was what he had anticipated, 
but whatever may have been his expectations, in a reason- 
able interval Columbus received from the distinguished 
Florentine a copy of the letter written to Portugal's King, 
bearing date of June 25th, 1477, in which communication 
the probability of reaching India by a voyage to the west 
was stated, and in a subsequent letter the project advanced 
by Columbus was commended. 

Toscanelli, besides being a great cosmographer, astron- 
omer, mathematician and astrologer, was a man of vast in- 
fluence, who found a hearty welcome at the pontifical court 
of Rome, and who was chief adviser to the King of Portugal 
on subjects connected with geography and navigation. 
When, therefore, the views of Columbus received the indorse- 
ment of a man of such eminence as Toscanelli, and in which 
there was a concurrent expression from Canon Pernando 
Martinez, he had obtained a recognition that justly increased 
his enthusiasm and determination, besides serving him 
greatly in converting others to similar opinions. Nor did 
Toscanelli content himself with submitting proofs adduced 
from his own knowledge as a cosmographer, for so in- 
terested Avas he in confirming the theories of Columbus, 
that he added to his letters the concurrent testimonies 
which he had gathered from records and correspondence 
with navigators, and thus materially assisted in leading 
others to embrace the beliefs which Columbus was seeking 
means to demonstrate. These opinions of leading scientists 
of the time served to renew interest in older sea tales, in 
which unknown islands were represented as having been 



THE NEW WORLD. 49 

seen by shipwrecked mariners and super-pious bishops. It 
was this excited condition of the public mind, no doubt, 
that prompted Antonio Leone, of Madeira, to seriously re- 
late to Columbus an account of his voyage a hundred 
leagues to the west and his having sighted three consider- 
able islands, upon which, however, he did not land. 

Others pretended to have seen islands suddenly rise out 
of the sea, and as mysteriously sink from sight again, while 
there was a legend, now often recounted, to the effect that 
on one island in the far west seven bishops had taken refuge 
in their flight (whether by ship or wing is not related) from 
the Moors and found thereon seven splendid cities, pre- 
sumably with all the comforts to which they had before been 
accustomed. 

But the evidences of previous discoveries of a western 
continent, and the belief entertained by many that Cipango, 
of Marco Polo, might be reached by a voyage to the west, 
in no wise detracted from the honors won by Columbus, 
since results rather than accidents, theories and unimproved 
chances, concern us most. Many men saw apples fall from 
a tree before Newton observed such a natural accident, yet 
it was reserved for him to discover in a falling apple the law 
of gravitation. And if America had been visited, however 
often, before the time of Columbus, the honor and glory 
were nevertheless reserved to him of making the discovery 
valuable to mankind. 
4 



CHAPTER II. 

Before the end of the year 1477 Columbus had become 
so enthusiastic in his determination to sail in quest of eastern 
lands that he returned with his family to Lisbon, and hav- 
ing obtained a ship he sailed in a northwesterly direction, 
by England, along the Scandinavian shores, and thence west 
to Iceland. Here he tarried awhile with Icelandic bishops, 
from whom it is reasonably supposed he obtained informa- 
tion of the discovery of Vineland by the Northmen — the 
Viking Navigators — as early as the year 985. It is certain 
that the story of discoveries and settlements on the Ameri- 
can shore — then called Vineland — was preserved in the Scan- 
dinavian Sagas, and all the attendant circumstances of the 
voyagers of Herjulfson, Leif Erickson, Thorwald, Thorstein 
and Thorfinn were familiar through repetition of the history 
around the yule logs of the Iceanders, where it was custo- 
mary to recite the Sagas. 

What he learned in the land of Ultima Thule of Ptolemy 
— Iceland — served the more to indelibly impress Columbus 
with the truthfulness of his theory ; besides which specific 
information, he had observed, through the philosophic in- 
stinct that was in him, the length of time it took the sun 
to traverse the length of the Mediterranean, and calculated 
time and distance so as to determine an arc of the earth 
and thus measure its circumference. There was practicall)^ 
a unanimity of opinion at this period as to the hemispheric 
shape of the earth, though several of the most distinguished 
scientists of the age had advanced the theory of its sphe- 
50 



THE NEW WORLD. 51 

ricity ; but not a few cosmographers, and nearly all ecclesias- 
tics, ridiculed as preposterous the idea of the earth being 
other than a plane capped with a dome, the edges of which 
marked the horizon, beyond which were darkness and 
possibly nameless things. To counteract so general an 
opinion, not wholly disconnected with pious faith, Columbus 
was for a while distressed for opportunity to explain his 
theory before influential bodies. 

It is no discredit either to Columbus or to the Church to 
venture the suspicion that, in order to obtain audiences 
which other means appear to have denied him, he now 
assumed a degree of religious devotion and intense piety 
which had not previously characterized his life, and that his 
purpose may have been to gain the confidence of eccle- 
siastics through whom alone, he justly reasoned, could he 
reach the ears of those whose assistance he required. 
That Columbus was a strong Catholic, by conviction as 
well as by birth, is undeniable, but at this time of his life 
there are appearances of efforts at pietistical manifes- 
tations not before noted, and a purpose may have been be- 
hind it. 

Against this suspicion, however, may be opposed the 
equally reasonable conclusion that long brooding over his 
scheme had developed in him a belief that he had been 
divinely commissioned to carry the gospel of Christ to the 
uttermost parts of the world, to lands whereon the feet of 
a Ciiristian had never trod. This belief is even intimated 
in one of his letters, in which he refers to himself as having 
been designed to fulfill a prophecy of Isaiah. It is possible 
also that he may have been urged to this conviction by 
reflecting upon the interpretation of his name, in which 
there appeared to be a foreshadowing of the Divine intent 
operating through him. The family name, COLOMBO, sig- 
nifies in the Latin a dovc^ indicative of purity, innocence 



52 COLUMBUS. 

and simplicity, and the Colombian coat-of-arms accordingly 
bore a device of three white doves on an azure field, beneath 
which were the Christian graces, faith, hope, charity. The 
word Colombo also expresses navigation, love for the sea, or 
the keel of a vessel ; by which combination it was easy for 
Columbus to conceive that in his surname there was pro- 
phetic signification of an inspired man, destined to carry 
the gospel of purity and simplicity of heart across the ocean 
waters to unknown lands. 

But as if to reinforce the interpretation of which the word 
Colombo was susceptible, he had been baptized in a church 
dedicated to St. Stephen and christened at that moment 
Christopiiorus, which, as De Lorgues says, was a name 
most appropriate for the functions he was to discharge 
among men. This latter signifies a disciple of Christ, or 
one who bears the cross ; hence, he who spreads the gospel. 
To one so visionary, so enthusiastic, so quick to embrace 
an opinion, and so tenacious of his beliefs as was Columbus, 
the conclusion is unavoidable that he must have been 
deeply impressed by the coincidence of his ambitious con- 
ception and the signification of both his family and bap- 
tismal names. 

The chronology of Columbus' acts cannot be determined, 
and hence the diversity of statement of his biographers as 
to the time and place when he first made an appeal for na- 
tional assistance in furtherance of his scheme. By some his 
voyage to Iceland is represented as having been made be- 
fore his sojourn on the island of Porto Santo, and in pursu- 
ance of information gained at the pontifical court of Rome, 
where, among the Vatican archives, it is declared reports 
were found detailing the American discoveries of Norse 
navigators. Others represent him as performing this journey 
after the rejection of his proposal to the Portuguese sov, 
ereign. In this confusion, arising from irreconcilable dates 



THE NEW WORLD. 53 

and indefiniteness of circumstances, we can do no better 
than attempt to relate the facts in the order in which they 
appear to have most probably occurred. 

That Columbus was sensibly impressed with a belief in 
a power bestowed by special dispensation of Providence is 
clearly indicated by the severely independent, commanding 
spirit which he exhibited when appearing before the senates 
and courts with overtures for aid in carrying his projects 
into effect. It may be reasonably inferred, from more 
than a single circumstance, that he made his first appeal for 
assistance before the Congress of Genoa, that being his native 
city, and the republic of which he had helped to perpetuate 
when threatened by the arrogance of Venice. But to his 
argument and appeals the Genoese Senate returned only 
evasive replies, pleading such excuses as a depleted treasury, 
danger of the undertaking, and the probable profitlessness of 
such a discovery even if made. 

But, inspired by dreams of golden accomplishment, hope 
still lured him forward to perfect his schemes, and from 
Genoa Columbus went directly to the republic of St. Mark, 
where he laid his proposals before the Venetian Senate, 
hoping to make Italy the beneficiary of his enterprise ; but 
the council scarcely deigned to hear his appeal ; nor did it 
give any audience to his views and arguments. Thus re- 
jected, Columbus went to Savone, at which place his father 
was now living, and where he remained only one year, but 
in what engagement we do not know. Thence he returned 
again to Lisbon, and spent the next few years drawing 
charts and studying the works of philosophers and his- 
torians. In the meantime his devoted wife, Felippa, died, 
leaving to him the care of a son, Diego, w^ho was now prob- 
ably ten years of age. But the rejection of senates and the 
loss of relatives in no wise abated his ardor, for he was sus- 
tained in all afflictions by remembrance of sacrifices borne 



54 COLUMBUS. 

by Christ, and an inflexible belief in the inspiration of his 
designs. 

Patiently abiding his time, Columbus at length thought 
he saw an opportunity for a successful presentation of his 
purposes and desires before the Court of Portugal, as King 
John II. began to manifest his disposition to extend his 
dominions. But at no time would Columbus descend from 
his lofty dignity, which bore the effrontery of an affected 
superiority, and this seemingly supercilious air, which was 
really a self-consciousness of inspiration, increased the nat- 
ural difficulties which attend an audience at court. He 
had acquired the character of a visionary, and when at 
length he was permitted to appear before the King, there 
was little to predispose him to royal favor. Perhaps he 
would not have been admitted to the King's presence had 
it not been for the antecedent relations which he bore to- 
wards Don Henry, John's father, as the son-in-law of Porto 
Santo's governor, and husband to a woman who had been 
intimate with the best society, court and others, of Lisbon. 
Instead of finding Columbus obsequious, which usually 
characterizes the conduct of those 'seeking the royal favor. 
King John directly detected in the application a spirit of 
self-complacency and assurance truly astonishing, which 
was further aggravating to the monarch by the extravagant 
conditions accompanying the application. In the interview 
Columbus entertained no doubt that he should discover new 
countries rich in treasure and vast in extent. To his intense 
imagination everything was so real that he fancied himself 
already returning from a long voyage, bringing the most 
glorious fruits of discovery, for which service he esteemed 
himself as the equal of any potentate however powerful, and 
entitled to any reward however great. Therefore his de- 
mands were made commensurate with the deed he was 
expected to accomplish. He would not only accept nobility 



THE NEW WORLD. 55 

for himself, but required that hereditary honors be bestowed 
upon his family ; that he be commissioned as high admiral 
of the ocean, and receive a tenth part of all gains resulting 
from the expedition, the same to be given in perpetuity to 
his descendants. 

The extraordinary conditions which Columbus thus im- 
posed gave offense to John, which was increased by his 
peremptory refusal to accept anything less ; but when the 
King was so far indulgent as to refer the matter to a com- 
mission, instead of instantly dismissing him as a presump- 
tuous dreamer, Columbus felt certain that, whatever the out- 
come of the official inquiry, his plans had produced a strong 
impression upon Portugal's ruler. 

The council, consisting of Diego Ortiz Cazadilla, Bishop of 
Ceuta, Roderigo, the King's physician, and a Jewish cosmog- 
rapher named Joseph, upon assembling, summoned Colum- 
bus to explain more fully his theories and purposes. This 
opportunity was embraced to his greatest possible advantage, 
in which the great navigator set forth his beliefs and all the 
reasons upon which his determinations were based. His 
arguments seemed to prevail with Roderigo and Joseph, 
but the Bishop of Ceuta opposed, in the most violent 
manner, every theory that Columbus had advanced, and 
every conclusion that he had reached, and emphasized his 
objections by declaring that Portugal's treasury was in no 
condition for testing the wild vagaries of an enthusiast 
while Moorish infidels were threatening the nation. 

The harsh language of the Bishop inflamed Pedro de 
Meneses, Count of Villareal, who was also Knight of the 
Order of Christ, who, having the liberty of the assembly, re- 
plied in a spirited manner to the Bishop's bigoted reflec- 
tions, among other things saying : " Would it not perhaps 
be to refuse God, to reject this offer ? " and closing with these 
impressive words : "Soldier as I am, but influenced thereto 



56 COLUMBUS. 

by a voice from heaven urging me on, I dare to foretell to 
the sovereign who would attempt this enterprise a happy 
success, which will produce a greater power and a vaster 
glory in the future than were ever obtained by the most 
celebrated heroes or the most fortunate monarchs." This 
speech was cheered in a manner indicative of its effect upon 
the assembly, but the Bishop, to counteract its effect, ex- 
pressed himself as unfavorable to Columbus for the carrying 
into execution of the undertaking, and thus he obtained a 
rejection of the conditions. 

King John, though probably indisposed, for personal 
reasons, as already intimated, to entertain the proposals of 
Columbus, was nevertheless deeply affected by the strong 
arguments which he had heard advanced before the Junta, 
and being covetous of new empires, called his counselors 
about him for advice as to how he might take advantage of 
the theories and information which Columbus had ex- 
pounded, in the verity of which he implicitly believed. It 
is astonishing, and in no degree complimentary to human 
justice, and least to a church bishop and King's confessor, 
that at this council the Bishop of Ceuta should be chief 
adviser, and that his recommendations should be as un- 
worthy as his opposition to Columbus was unjust ; through 
the advisings of this prelate King John sent a messenger to 
Columbus inviting him to reappear before the commission, 
which had not yet been discharged, and to present the 
fullest details of his project, together with all charts that 
he had prepared illustrative of his theory, and such informa- 
tion as he was able to give, alleging as a motive for this re- 
quest a desire of the commission to reopen the examination 
of his application and the evidences of its feasibility. 

Believing in the honesty of the King and his counselors, 
and greatly encouraged by this mark of interest, which to 
his roseate imagination foreshadowed an acceptance of the 



THE NEW WORLD. 57 

conditions named in his application, Columbus made a 
prompt response to the invitation and supplied the charts 
and information desired. 

Having obtained possession of the maps, papers and 
evidences supporting the theory upon which Columbus 
based his ambitions, by the further advice of the bishop 
King John secretly prepared a vessel, and placing it under 
the command of his most experienced pilot, who was 
equipped with the information thus perfidiously secured, 
dispatched it, ostensibly upon a voyage of discovery down 
the coast of Africa, upon a westward expedition in quest of 
the kingdom of Cipango, and in pursuance of all the plans 
submitted by Columbus. The bishop had recommended 
this graceless act with the venal intent of enabling the King 
to enrich himself without incurring any pecuniary obliga- 
tions to Columbus, whom he would rob under the highway- 
man's excuse that conditions made it impolitic to grant his 
application. 

The ship which the King had thus provided proceeded first 
to Cape de Verde islands, whence, after revictualing, the 
voyage into the great unknown was begun. For a few days 
fair progress was made, but as the distance increased alarm 
grew, and when directly a terrible storm assailed the vessel, 
fear turned to panic, and above the rush of winds, rattle of 
lines, and dash of sea, there rose in terrified imaginings, mad 
cries of distraction and prayers of despair. In every cloud 
there lurked a demon, every billow was the lair of monster 
infernal, while on the winds rode, like charge of cavalry, 
hosts of specters diabolic, a marshaling of hellish powers 
that held mastery over the boundary of ocean waters, and 
resented with destruction invasion of that haunted realm. 
With one accord, master and crew turned about their vessel 
with only a faint hope encouraging them, and returned to 
the Portuguese port whence they had sailed. 



58 COLUMBUS. 

Veiy soon after the cowardly voyagers regained the shore 
and made report of their failure to King John, to protect 
themselves from well-merited ridicule the officers and 
sailors began traducing Columbus as the author of a scheme 
most absurd, and which they had been so foolhardy as to 
so demonstrate. 

News of this swaggering and contumely was not long in 
reaching the ears of Columbus, who now for the first time 
learned of the King's perfidy. With scorn and anger at the 
shameless conduct of both King and commission, Columbus 
resolved to quit a country in which venality seemed to pre- 
dominate as the cap-sheaf of all the national vices. But 
King John did not accept the report of the voyagers as 
conclusive evidence of the claim that Columbus was a crazy 
adventurer. So far from entertaining such an opinion, he 
regarded the negative result as due to cowardice rather 
than as affording a proof that the plans of Columbus were 
no more than the conception of a dreamer. Indeed, the 
longer he contemplated the possibilities and probabilities of 
such a discovery as might be made by a voyage westward, 
the more inclined did the King become to lend substantial 
aid to the enterprise, and to make atonement for the per- 
fidious act which he had committed through advice of 
his confessor. Resolved at last what he should do. King 
John sent a letter of apology to Columbus, in which he 
also pledged the resources of his treasury in support of the 
enterprise. But in a spirit of lofty indignation, Columbus 
peremptorily and haughtily refused all overtures and con- 
tinued his preparations for a final removal from Lisbon, 
whose court he publicly denounced for its despicable 
treachery. The King, learning of his intentions, designed 
to restrain and compel him to the undertaking, but this 
conspiracy reaching the ears of Columbus he quietly disposed 
of the small property which he held in the city and took 



THE NEW WORLD. 59 

secret passage, with his son Diego, in a vessel bound for 
Genoa. 

It was in the latter part of 1484, as all authorities agree, 
that Columbus took his departure from Portugal, and it 
was probably towards the middle of that year when he ar- 
rived at Savone, where his father had taken up his residence 
some considerable time before. By some of his biogra- 
phers, notably De Lorgues, it is declared, that on this visit 
to his native country Columbus made one more appeal to 
the Senate of Genoa for assistance, but with no better 
success, and possibly with less encouragement, than at- 
tended his first application. But doubt as to this act is 
substantially based upon the character of Columbus, who, 
being imperious and still impressed with a belief in his in- 
spiration, as already explained, could not easily forget the 
indifference of the Senate to his original proposals ; besides, 
just before quitting Lisbon he had sent his brother, Bar- 
tholomew, to England to lay before Henry VIL plans and 
purposes of his proposed expedition and to solicit the aid of 
that monarch, upon terms which had been offered to John H. 
Hence circumstances point to the conclusion that his object 
in repairing to Italy was two-fold, viz. : to visit his father, 
who was now greatly aged, and to seek there a temporary 
asylum from the designs of Portugal's King. And this 
belief is increased by the fact that his stay in Savone was 
certainly not less and probably more than one year, at the 
end of which time he turned his eyes towards the Christian 
monarchies, among whom he confidently believed he would, 
through God's help, find a patron who would give him all 
necessary aid to demonstrate the beneficent problem which 
he had proposed. 



CHAPTER III. 

What prompted Columbus to proceed to Spain at the 
conclusion of his visit to Savone only Providence can an- 
swer. He had no friends in that country, so far as history 
acquaints us, if we except a young married sister of his 
wife, living at Huelva, and if he went there in furtherance 
of his ambitions, his hopes must have been poorly sup- 
ported, for in no other nation were the conditions appar- 
ently so unfavorable to the accomplishment of his ends. 
For years a fierce war had been carried on in a vain effort 
to expel the Moors, who held the fairest portions of Spain 
despite the thunderbolts of Europe to drive them back into 
Africa. But the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile had been 
united by the marriage of P*erdinand and Isabella, in which 
consolidation of Christian interests the country was hope- 
fully anticipating a victory that would destroy the last 
vestige of Islamism in Spain. But the treasuries of Aragon, 
Castile and Leon were nearly exhausted, while the two 
armies were upon the point of engaging in a decisive bat- 
tle before the splendid-crowned capital of Granada, into 
which the Moors had been driven as their last resort. 

Columbus, after arriving at Palos, with his son Diego, 
being poor in purse and ill-prepared to procure better en- 
tertainment, repaired to a convent dedicated to the Order 
of St. Francis, and called, in honor of the Virgin, Santa 
Maria dela Rabida, which stood on a high hill overlooking 
the sea, somewhat more than a mile from Palos. Over 
this convent there presided the good bishop Juan Perez de 
60 



THE NEW WORLD. 6i 

Marchena, who had been counselor and confessor of Queen 
Isabella, and who was also a man much esteemed for his 
great learning, as well as for his exceeding urbanity and 
gentleness of heart, which greatly endeared him to the 
Queen. He was both a cosmographer and an astronomer, 
who preferred the solitude and holy communion of the 
convent to the glittering pomp and obsequious homage 
of servile parasites that characterized life about the royal 
court. In the company of such a man Columbus found 
congenial companionship as well as a warm welcome, for 
the good bishop lent an eager ear to explanations of his 
theories and an unfolding of his plans, pregnant as they 
were with mighty possibilities for the advancement of both 
Church and State. 

In all the long discussions between Columbus and the 
prior of La Rabida there was unanimity of opinion respect- 
ing the shape of the earth, and the probability of reaching 
countries of the far east by sailing westward ; but the means 
for demonstrating this belief doubtless became a subject 
of dispute. That the Spanish sovereigns would extend 
the necessary aid was problematic, considering the con- 
dition of the country at that time, when the energies 
and hopes of both Ferdinand and Isabella were di- 
rected in channels leading away from all commercial enter- 
prises. 

In the Middle Ages next to sovereign power was feudal 
wealth and influence, and everywhere in Spain picturesque 
sites were adorned with castles defended by moats, and 
walls, and brazen gates, the homes of rich barons, noble 
dukes and successful robbers. These lordly representatives 
of feudal timocracy kept bands of armed servitors to pro- 
tect them from invaders of their own kind, and even main- 
tained fleets for carrying products to other ports, and some- 
times to engage in adventures for spoliation on the high 



62 COLUiMBUS. 

seas. Among the most celebrated of these lords, at the 
time of Columbus' visit to Spain, was the Duke of Medina 
Sidonia, who was one of the most illustrious nobles of 
Europe. His castle was as well fortified and as impregna- 
ble as Gibraltar ; his wealth was equal to that of a kingdom, 
and the splendor of his court and equipage rivaled that of 
Caesar. So enormous were his riches that more than once 
was his King a borrower from his bounty, and a hundred 
war vessels, manned by his vassals, was his contribution to 
Ferdinand in his war against the Moors. To this great 
duke did La Rabida's prior refer his guest in a letter of 
Avarm commendation, and with this influential introduction 
Columbus made a journey to the battlemented castle, full 
of hope, perhaps joyfully sanguine of the result. But dis- 
appointment followed his every footstep, to confront him in 
the splendid halls of the rich and powerful lord. At first, 
excited by the boldness of his visitor's proposals, and cap- 
tivated by the eloquence and force of his reasoning, which 
seemed to force conviction upon his willing cars, the duke 
was prompted to extend the aid desired, until reflecting 
that his sovereigns might object to such an enterprise being 
undertaken as a private project, he finally dismissed the 
subject from his mind, leaving Columbus no other resource 
than to return to the cloisters, where alone he had found 
encouragement and help. 

By the solicitation of the generous prelate Columbus was 
afterwards induced to make his proposals to the Duke of 
Medina Cell, who was also a rich and powerful noble, some- 
what famed for hospitality, but his appeals met with such 
decided refusal that, mortified by rejections of his requests, 
and completely discouraged by his unfavorable reception at 
the hands of those who were most able to help him, Co- 
lumbus resolved to quit Spain and repair to the Court of 
France, the throne of which was then occupied by Anne, 



THE NEW WORLD. 6 



wife of Peter 11., who ruled as regent of Charles VIII. dur- 
ing his minority. 

France appeared to Columbus as presenting an inviting 
field for the advancement of his mighty enterprise. Under 
Louis XL she had made marvelous advances, for he had 
crushed out feudalism and substituted autocracy for an- 
archy ; at the same time, while centralizing his govern- 
ment, he gave every possible encouragement to com- 
merce and industry. Besides this directive spirit of higher 
civilization Louis bestowed great favors upon the uni- 
versities, and had enlarged the borders of France to almost 
their present dimensions, and on his deathbed, in 1483, 
begged that the policy of his administration be continued 
by his successor. 

Charles VIII. was only thirteen years of age when his 
father died, and was poorly fitted both by youth and 
training to assume the duties of an active ruler; so that 
Anne, his aunt. Duchess of Bourbon and sister of Louis 
XL, was declared regent, and for nine years acted, by the 
King's last instructions, as guardian of Charles. So pru- 
dently did she manage the government that she destroyed 
the last vestige of feudalism, asserted the power of France 
against Brittany, practically placed Henry of Richmond on 
the throne of England, and by other brilliant successes 
received the title " Madame la Grande." Her army was the 
largest in Europe, her treasure the richest, and her ambition 
for the glory of her country the greatest ; the circum- 
stances and conditions, therefore, seemed to particularly 
favor Columbus in France, and his resolution to appeal to 
that court was for a while so firmly fixed that all the per- 
suasive powers of Father Juan's eloquence were scarcely 
sufficient to divert him from this purpose. 

Several years had passed between the time that Columbus 
first appeared before the hospitable door of the La Rabida 



64 COLUMBUS. 

Convent, and when he returned dejected, careworn and 
covered with the dust of travel from his unsuccessful visit 
to the Duke of Medina Celi ; but he was not discouraged, 
for there was still in him a feeling of inspiration which 
urged him on like a good angel guardian, by reminders of 
how others had suffered before gaining the great end of 
their beneficent missions. 

Scarcely was his hunger satisfied at the generous board of 
the convent when Columbus unfolded his plans to the bishop 
of presenting his proposals to the French Court, and 
recited his reasons for expecting a favorable response. To 
these Father Juan opposed all his influence, and eloquently 
pleaded with his guest to reserve his intent until other 
chances for giving the glory of his discoveries to Spain 
were tried. Thus persuading Columbus to remain for a 
while at the convent. Father Juan summoned a learned 
physician of Palos, named Garcia Hernandez, who promptly 
responded and added his inducements and encouragements 
to those of the Franciscan Father. Several other influential 
persons of Palos directly appeared at the convent and joined 
their efforts with those of Hernandez and the prelate in 
devising means for gaining the attention of the Spanish 
sovereigns and securing their assistance in promoting the 
project of Columbus, 

The result of the long and frequent consultations at the 
Convent of La Rabida was not without substantial, though 
not immediate, benefits. When the time for his departure 
from the monastery was at hand Columbus received from 
Father Juan a sum of money and a cordial letter of earnest 
recommendation addressed to the Prior of Prado, Ferdinand 
de Talavera, who was then confessor to Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella, whose mediation it was believed would give him a 
favorable reception at court. Not being in a condition to 
properly provide for his son, Columbus left Diego in charge 



THE NEW WORLD. 65 

of the charitable Franciscans, who generously clothed, fed 
and educated him for a number of years. 

Columbus set out hopefully for Cordova, and arriving at 
the court confidently presented his letter, but instead of 
meeting a cordial reception the prior haughtily, even dis- 
dainfully, scrutinized him, nor would even give ear to his 
representations. 

At the time of Columbus' visit to Cordova the Moors, 
who once held dominion over the entire Iberian peninsula, 
had now been driven by the victorious Spanish to make 
their refuge in Granada, about the borders of which an 
exultant army was eagerly pressing. The city of Cordova 
was therefore the center of military activity ; trumpets filled 
the air with their blaring notes, companies of cavaliers rode 
through the streets full armored, and all the chivalry of 
Spain was in uniform. 

It may with justice be admitted that destiny looked with 
favor on Columbus in recommending him to such a person- 
age as the Queen of Castile. Isabella was now in the prime 
of womanhood, being in her thirty-fifth year. As a woman 
she was beautiful, the effect of which was increased by a 
dignity and grace that became her as a sovereign. Her 
temper was amiable, her judgment prudent, and as a wife 
she subordinated her royal prerogatives to love and duty, 
for her affection for Ferdinand was sincere. Though her 
rights as Queen of Castile and Leon were unabridged by 
marriage, she nevertheless diligently sought to assimilate 
her will and purpose with that of her husband, though she 
could not fail to perceive that of the united kingdom she 
was at once the light and glory. 

Not less than the King was Isabella concerned in the 

nation's ambition to expel both Moors and Jews from 

Spain ; and her enthusiasm in this effort prompted her to 

spend much of her time in the Spanish camps, inspiring her 

5 



66 COLUMBUS. 

soldiers to deeds of valor. In summer the court was held 
at Cordova, but in winter the King and Queen repaired to 
their palace at Salamanca, at which palace Columbus was 
first able, after a delay of many months, to meet any of 
the dignitaries of the royal household. His first acquaint- 
ance of advantage was with Alonzo Quintanilla, comptroller 
of the treasury of Castile, who gave a patient audience to 
Columbus, and who became a valuable convert to his views. 
Through the comptroller Columbus was introduced to 
Antonio Geraldini, ambassador of the Pope, and to Alex- 
ander, his brother, instructor to the princes and princesses, 
both of whom became deeply impressed with his theories, 
and lent him their heartiest encouragements. 

Though Columbus had made progress in the diffusion of 
his plans, and won over to his project the sympathies of many 
distinguished persons in Spain, whose influence with the 
sovereigns was pronounced, opportunity for presenting 
his application to either the King or Queen was still want- 
ing. In the meantime the money charitably given by 
Father Juan was expended, and pressing want gave him no 
other alternative than a return to his profession of cartog- 
rapher for a living. In the year which had now elapsed in 
persistent effort to gain the attention of the court the mind 
of Columbus was diverted by a love episode, which proved 
that amid all his deep concerns his heart was not so ab- 
sorbed with ambitions for glory but that it was still suscep- 
tible to the influence of a w^oman's eyes and blandishments. 
In Cordova there were many beautiful sefioritas ; in fact, 
the city was famed for the comeliness of its ladies ; fair 
graces that wore the smiles of Venus, the form of Diana, 
and the ravishments of Helen. To one of these, Dofia 
Beatriz Enriquez, Columbus surrendered, and lived with 
her for many years, but whether this union was consecrated 
by hymeneal bonds is a question which historians have 



THE NEW WORLD. 67 

vainly debated : but true it is, that when, in 1487, this lady 
bore him a son, Columbus not only acknowledged its pater- 
nity, but had the child christened Fernando and bestowed 
upon him ever afterwards the same marks of legitimacy 
that he did upon his other son, Diego. Indeed, Fernando 
filled a larger part of his father's life than did Diego, as he 
was intrusted with the most important concerns and be- 
came his father's biographer, transmitting to all ages the 
story of Columbus, his defeats and triumphs, and at the last 
hour was by his bedside to receive his blessing and to 
close his eyes for that final rest which he had won by the 
most distinguished services, but which had been least re- 
quited. 

After years of waiting, years of disappointment, years of 
alternating encouragements and humiliations, it fell to the 
good fortune of Columbus at last to meet, through the 
courtesy of Quintanilla, the great Archbishop of Toledo, 
Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, whose influence at the Spanish 
court was ascendant, in so much that he was principal 
counselor of the King and Queen in all matters concerning 
either peace or war. In some respects he resembled the 
most distinguished of French cardinals, Richelieu, for he 
was at once soldier and statesman, and, being dignified with 
age, his manners were also chivalrous and captivating. The 
first audience which Columbus had with this great ecclesi- 
astic was not entirely satisfactory, as a proposal of his 
scheme brought upon Columbus the archbishop's suspicion 
tliat the theories submitted contravened the doctrines of the 
Church, and that an assertion of the earth's sphericity was 
rank heresy. But he was not so bigoted as to be wholly 
obdurate, or impervious to reason, and before the eloquence 
of Columbus, pleading his ambition to spread the gospel 
of Christ among heathens of unknown lands, he was com- 
pelled to manifest the greatest interest. We may well im- 



68 COLUMBUS. 

agine the zeal of the adventurer in this, one of the many 
supreme hours in his career. He must have appeared to 
the sedate cardinal as one inspired, whose intelligence could 
not fail to apprehend the cogency of the argument, and the 
sincerity of the advocate. Glimpses also of the magnificent 
prospect held forth and lighted by the torch of Columbus' 
imagination were caught by the venerable Mendoza, and he 
yielded to the appeal in so far as to promise that he would 
procure for Columbus a hearing before the Queen. 

In fulfillment of his agreement the archbishop did in- 
troduce Columbus at court, but instead of meeting Isabella 
he was ushered into the presence of Ferdinand, whose cold, 
cynical nature was not improved by lack of decision, and 
an illiberality that bordered on penuriousness. It must 
also be remembered that an audience with majesty is an or- 
deal through which one may pass only by an exhibition of 
mingled courage and humility — the courtliness of a knight 
combined with the awe of a peasant. But notwithstanding 
these disquieting conditions, which might render the most 
resolute nervous and misgiving, Columbus, as if encouraged 
by some occult power, in proof of his claim to have been sent 
of Heaven to perform a wondrous work, poured into the 
King's ears matchless arguments in support of his theory, 
and pictured in words of extraordinary zeal and confidence 
the kingdoms which must lie beyond the line where the 
horizon kisses the expanding sea. 

In one particular the interest of Ferdinand was aroused. 
The recital of Columbus had covered his experience at the 
court of the King of Portugal, and Spain was at enmity 
with Portugal, which rendered Ferdinand sensible to any 
plan which promised to embarrass John. Therefore, in so 
far as the prospect of advantage was opened by the proposals 
of Columbus, the Spanish monarch was willing to extend 
his assistance, if by so doing he might anticipate the Portu- 



THE NEW WORLD. 69 

guese in reaching India by a western route. But over this 
selfish incentive the coldness and parsimony of his disposi- 
tion prevailed ; but instead of dismissing Columbus, he with- 
held final decision until opinions of the learned men of the 
kingdom, as to the feasibility of the project, could be ob- 
tained. 

In pursuance of the expressed intentions of Ferdinand he 
appointed a commission of several learned men of Spain 
to consider the theory and proposals of Columbus, at the 
head of which was placed Ferdinand de Talavera, whose 
chilling reception, as already described, gave small hopes to 
Columbus of a favorable determination; Rodrigo Maldenado 
de Talavera, Mayor of Salamanca, and a cousin of the arch- 
bishop, was appointed secretary of the congress, who shared 
with his distinguished kinsman the bigotry and prejudice 
which he had evinced at the first meeting with Columbus. 

The congress which Ferdinand thus called together con- 
vened at Salamanca, which was the seat of all Spanish 
learning, but still distinctly medieval and intensely ecclesias- 
tical. The chairs of its great university were occupied by 
the most learned scholastics of Europe, and on its registry 
were sometimes enrolled more than eight thousand students. 
But Church influence dominated everything in Spain ; the 
professorships were held by priest, bishop or cardinal, so 
that all instruction was poured through the sieve of eccle- 
siasticism, and only that which could pass through the 
meshes was accepted as true. Thus we perceive that in the 
time of Columbus both the intellectual and moral life of 
Spain was subordinated to the purposes of the Church. So 
supreme was prelacy that not even Ferdinand and Isabella 
could free themselves from the thraldom which it had 
imposed. This being the intellectual condition of the nation, 
the professors of its greatest university were ill-prepared 
for original investigation, and the Junta which had been 



70 COLUMBUS. 

assembled was not more advanced in. thought, nor Hberal in 
their views, than the mass of the religious monitors of that 
age, who took scrupulous care that science should not 
invade the precincts of the Church. To pass the established 
bourne, to trench upon unexplored realms, to venture a 
scientific explanation of the simplest phenomenon of nature, 
was to startle and shock the whole conservatism of ecclesias- 
ticism. 

The assembling place of the congress was the Dominican 
Convent of St. Stephen, and the time very early in January, 
1487, but the members of the commission cannot be deter- 
mined, as the records were long since destroyed, if, indeed, 
they were ever preserved. When Columbus was called to 
present his arguments before this learned body of scholastics, 
he surely could not extract inspiration from the promises 
which their every aspect revealed. 

But notwithstanding all the discouragements which con- 
fronted him, Columbus arose before his critics in the large 
conference hall of St. Stephen, firm, determined, statuesque. 
The occasion had arrived when his supremest nature must 
be exhibited ; when all the powers of his mental endowments 
must be brought into display ; when diffidence and doubt 
must give way to pluck and persistence ; when courage and 
confidence must be harnessed by the will to ride through 
the ranks of prejudice and all opposing environment. 
With this undaunted spirit Columbus addressed the bearded 
Junta. At first only the Dominican friars, composing a part 
of the audience, gave him respectful attention, but as he 
progressed his zeal grew vehement and words of startling 
import fell in streams of eloquence from his lips. Gradually 
he began to make an impression, favorable upon the least 
bigoted, but antagonistic to the greater number, and these 
latter flung at him, by way of interruption, puerile objec- 
tions to his theories, opposing, with weak derision, the 



THE NEW WORLD. 71 

evidences presented of a world beyond the gloomy ocean. 
The Scriptures — as they have been used alike to defend and 
impeach in every great moral question that has arisen to 
divide society — were appealed to in disproof of the claims 
of the Genoese navigator. Texts were quoted by the 
dignitaries, each smiling, after the manner of his kind, to 
think how the upstart philosopher was brought to bay by 
the leveling stroke of authorit)^ The Book of Genesis 
served the opposition, while others quoted the Psalms and 
the prophecies and the New Testament writings as con- 
clusive evidence of the falsity of Columbus' conclusions. 
But these being controverted, the Junta, who were also 
Church Fathers, introduced opinions of St. Chrysostom, St. 
Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Gregory, St. Basil and St. 
Ambrose in proof of the flat shape of the earth, and that 
circumnavigation was therefore impossible. Lactantius 
Firmiarus, who wrote in the fourth century, was also appealed 
to, whose opinion that the earth is a plane was piously and 
elaborately set forth in a work which he entitled De Falsa 
Sapientia — an insight into deceptive things. 

Columbus confidently quoted, in support of his theory of 
the earth's sphericity, such classical authorities as Pliny, 
Strabo, Seneca and Aristotle, and also read many passages 
from the Bible which appeared to refer to other lands than 
those then known. And thus was the conference turned 
into a commission of disputation, which resulted, as it had 
begun, in a division of opinion respecting the earth's shape. 
Some there were, chiefly the Dominican monks, who be- 
lieved the world to be globular in form, but these opposed 
the claims of Columbus, that India might be reached by a 
voyage westward, by declaring that the very fact of the 
earth's rotundity would prevent the possibility of a ship's 
returning if it ventured beyond the equatorial line ; for, said 
they, the globe being spherical, must fall away in all direc- 



72 COLUMBUS. 

tions. How, therefore, they argued, could one who had 
sailed beyond the rim, down the convexity of the world, 
be able to sail back up the slope, which must be like as- 
cending a hill ? Terrestrial gravitation was not known at 
this time even by Columbus, so he could only offer a ref- 
utation of this argument by reciting his own experience in 
a voyage along the coast of Guinea, below the equator, 
where he observed nothing to prevent a ship from sailing 
north or south. 

But while some of the assemblage were converted to his 
views, notably friar Diego dc Deza, professor of theology, 
Columbus was vehemently opposed by an overwhelming 
majority of the council, who submitted their report in 
writing to the King and Queen, declaring that the project 
was " vain and impossible, and that it did not belong to the 
majesty of such great princes to determine anything upon 
such weak grounds of information." 

While the commission was resolving the evidence, and 
before a verdict had been reached, the Spanish Court left 
Salamanca, first proceeding to Cordova and thence to the 
seat of war in Granada, leaving Columbus waiting for the 
judgment of the conference, which, however, he believed 
would be unfavorable. Upon announcement of the report 
Columbus was much distressed, but his discouragement was 
directly relieved by a message from the sovereigns, who in 
a few words gave intimation that, regardless of the finding 
of the congress, they were not disposed to wholly abandon 
the project, and might give him necessary aid when the war, 
in which they were now engaged, terminated. 

With this small encouragement upon which to hang his 
hopes, Columbus followed the King and Queen, first to the 
siege of Malaga, where he was a witness to the surrender of 
that stronghold, and thence, owing to a plague breaking 
out in the captured city, to Saragossa, Valladolid, and to 



THE NEW WORLD. :^s 

Medina del Campo. But heart-sick at length, through want 
of opportunity to press his project upon the Spanish 
sovereigns, he resolved to turn his attention towards some 
other country. Under the pressure of want and disappoint- 
ment he even so far forgot the indignity put upon him by 
the Court of Portugal that he wrote to John II. asking of 
that monarch if he was still willing to promote his scheme 
of discovery. A prompt reply was returned, in which John 
addressed him as ''dear and particular friend," and invited 
him to court, promising to protect him against any suits, 
civil or criminal, that might have been instituted against 
him. There is in this cordial letter of invitation and 
assurance an intimation that Columbus had been guilty of 
some criminal act during his residence in Lisbon, but if so 
neither history nor tradition has preserved to us the offense. 
Almost directly upon the receipt of the letter from King 
John there came to Columbus a communication from Henry 
VII. of England, requesting him to come to that country 
under agreement to give him encouragement and support. 
Columbus might have accepted one of these two kindly 
proffers but for the persuasions of Ferdinand de Talavera, 
who had been appointed Archbishop of Avila, and, though 
a strong opponent to Columbus, was instructed by Isabella 
to temporize with him so as to prevent his departure from 
Spain until she could familiarize herself more perfectly with 
his theories and proposals. The new motives which the 
adroit archbishop held out induced Columbus to exercise 
his patience a while longer, and continuing with the court 
he saw the investment and final capture of the city of Baza, 
and the surrender of Muley Boabdil, one of the Moorish 
kings of Granada. Another year was thus spent, and when 
at length he demanded, through Talavera, a decisive reply to 
his request as to what the King and Queen would do with 
his proposals, the same answer was returned, that the 



74 COLUMBUS. 

Spanish treasury was not in a condition to give assistance 
to his enterprise. 

Columbus was fairly overwhelmed by this disappoint- 
ment, and first acquainting the archbishop with his inten- 
tions, he quitted Seville, thence went to Cordova, and from 
that city set out for the convent of La Rabida. In the 
meantime, by direction of the Queen, another committee of 
scholars was appointed in Seville to investigate and report 
upon the feasibility of his schemes, which, after a brief sitting, 
confirmed the conclusions of the Salamanca Congress, thus 
seemingly destroying the last hope he entertained of assist- 
ance from the Spanish sovereigns. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Despondent, forlorn, weary, and withal indignant, the 
sorrow-crowned navigator bent his footsteps towards the 
one asylum whose door stood open to give him a joyous 
welcome, and extend such comforts as he had not found in 
the splendid but cheerless courts of kingly palaces, or 
baronial halls. If the Church in her blindness branded 
him as an unworthy adventurer, it was no less the Church 
that greeted his return from a barren mission, and assuaged 
his melancholy with regalement of hospitable consolement. 

The purpose of Columbus in returning to La Rabida 
monastery was no doubt to take leave of, or to provide for 
the future maintenance of his son Diego ; but his reception 
was so cordial that he was persuaded by Prior Juan to re- 
main awhile and recruit his energies and spirits, which had 
been nearly expended in his long and futile quest of aid 
at the Spanish Court. The devoted Father, Juan Perez, not 
only administered to his physical requirements, but infused 
Columbus with courage to bear with resignation the slights 
and disappointments which now weighed so heavily upon 
him. The Palos physician, Garcia Hernandez, whose scien- 
tific attainments made his opinions particularly valuable, 
came to the monastery with greater frequency now and 
added his influence to that of the prior towards inducing 
Columbus to renew his efforts with the Spanish Court, pro- 
vided with further recommendations which they would 
endeavor to supply. But it was decided to await the result 
of the field operations before Granada, which promised a 
decisive victory for the Spanish arms. 

75 



;6 COLUMBUS. 

When at length the time appeared auspicious, the Father 
Superior, whose former confessionary relation to the Queen 
justified him in making a personal appeal for consideration, 
wrote a lengthy letter to Isabella, commending the project 
of Columbus as one of extraordinary importance, worthy of 
her majesty's patronage, and as one promising the mightiest 
results, alike beneficial to the nation, to the world, and to 
the glory of God. But appreciating the enmity, and above 
all the bigoted prejudice, of the Court's counselors, instead 
of transmitting this letter through a church functionary, 
who might prejudice its effect, he confided his communica- 
tion to Sebastian Rodriquez, who was not only a noted pilot, 
but a man of polished address and with some experience in 
court etiquette. This devoted messenger lost no time in 
making the journey by mule to the camp near Granada, 
where he delivered the letter directly into the hands of 
Isabella, and received the thanks of the Queen for his serv- 
ice. While the proposals of Columbus had been presented 
to Ferdinand, and by him twice referred to a college of 
scholastics for investigation, the letter from Father Juan 
was the first direct appeal to Isabella, and subsequent 
events proved that to this fact it is not unreasonable to 
attribute the disappointments and delays which Columbus 
had for more than seven years suffered. 

So captivated was the Queen by the prospects glowingly 
pictured by Father Juan, that she sent Rodriquez back to 
the convent of La Rabida with an invitation to the prior to 
visit her at the camp for a personal conference on the sub- 
ject of his letter. 

We may imagine the joy with which Columbus and his 
good friend received the invitation and report brought to 
them by the pilot mesenger, in which there appeared hope- 
ful signs of an early consummation of their ambition. 

In the hurry to respond to the Queen's request, Father 



THE NEW WORLD. ;; 

Juan borrowed a mule from his friend Jean Rodriquez Cabe- 
zuda and set off at midnight, through midwinter's snow and 
bitter cold, for the new city of Santa Fe, ten miles from 
Granada, which was one hundred and fifty miles from Palos, 
where the sovereigns now had their court. He made the 
journey in safety, though the route was infested by ma- 
rauders and Moors, and though fatigued by the exertion, 
yet so anxiously was his mind possessed with the mighty 
scheme of Columbus, that without waiting for refreshment 
he immediately sought the Queen's presence. She received 
him with every manifestation of the tenderest regard, and 
to his eloquent pleadings gave the most encouraging audi- 
ence and promises. At the conclusion of the interview she 
charged the enthusiastic father to bring Columbus to court, 
and that he might appear in more seemly garb than his im- 
poverished condition had previously permitted, she gave 
the prior an order on a maritime broker in Palos for twenty 
thousand maravedis,* with which to provide Columbus with 
a mule, a suit of clothes and necessary traveling expenses. 

Prompt to respond to the royal summons, for he was 
felicitated by the promise which the invitation implied, 
Columbus, with bounding heart, set out, through the vales 
and over the mountains of Andalusia, for the court of Santa 
Fe, where he arrived in due season to be a witness to the 
surrender of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain. 
What a wondrous scene was there presented, as the cres- 
cent banners, that had for nearly eight hundred years 
floated from the walls of the inconceivably beautiful 
Alhambra, were torn down and supplanted by the cross- 

* The value of a maravedi is difficult now to fix. Webster defines it as a 
copper coin introduced into Spain by the Moors, and as having a value equal 
to about one-third of a cent, American money. De Lorgues, however, esti- 
mates the value at .018 cent ; Helps, at .0154 cent, while others fix the value at 
from one-half to two cents. 



;8 COLUMBUS. 

bearing flags of Ferdinand and Isabella. This momentous 
event occurred on Friday, the 30th of December, 1491, and 
three days later, Boabdil el Chico, the Moorish King, 
bowed with subjection before their Catholic majesties and 
delivered to them the keys of the city. 

The occasion was now one of such great national rejoic- 
ing that the Queen could not give Columbus a reception 
such as she had designed, but referred him as a guest to 
Alonzo de Quintanilla, his friend, who was Intendant- 
General of the finances. Four days later, or on the Feast 
of Kings, the two sovereigns made a picturesque proces- 
sional entry into the far-famed city of the Moors, at the 
gate of which they were received by the archbishops of 
Granada and a numerous clergy, chanting hymns of thanks- 
giving. 

The triumphal rejoicings were not yet concluded when 
Isabella sent a messenger summoning Columbus before her, 
thus illustrating the favor in which she estimated his 
schemes for exploration, and the decision she had made in 
her own mind to promote his purposes. The audience 
which followed was a brief one, for scarcely giving him time 
to explain his plans, the Queen told Columbus that she 
would accept his services and desired that he attend upon 
a meeting of her commissioners, over which Fernando de 
Talavcra presided, to arrange the terms. The impoverished 
appearance of Columbus, the rebuffs which he had suffered, 
the long pleadings that had remained unanswered, might 
have been expected to render him anxious to accept any 
conditions, and being a foreigner, with nothing but his 
theories to commend him, which two congresses had pro- 
nounced visionary, the commission anticipated that he 
would gladly accept any terms, however illiberal. Imag- 
ine their surprise when he submitted, as his proposals, 
these stipulations : That for his services he should at once 



THE NEW WORLD. 79 

be raised to the dignity of viceroy ; that he should be 
appointed governor-general of all the lands, islands or con- 
tinents he should discover ; that he should be honored with 
the title of Grand Admiral of the Ocean ; and that he 
should receive as a further reward a tenth part of all the 
profits that should accrue from results of his discoveries, the 
same to be continued in perpetuity to his descendants, and 
also that the dignities should be transmitted hereditarily to 
his family according to the laws of primogeniture. 

When these imperious demands were received, the com- 
missioners were not only shocked, but so indignant as to 
give expression to their feelings, characterizing such pro- 
posals as presumptuous in the extreme and insulting to the 
dignity and wisdom of their sovereigns. But Columbus 
was as inflexible in his demands now as he had been before 
the Portuguese Junta, and he stubbornly refused to relax his 
demeanor, or abate one tittle of the terms which he had 
submitted. 

His insistence, hedging his agreements, was communi- 
cated to the Queen in a report recommending a rejection 
of his proposition, the committee reinforcing their conclu- 
sions by declaring that since the scheme had been twice 
before adjudged chimerical, its failure under national pat- 
ronage would expose their majesties to the mockery and 
derision of all Europe. 

The report of the commission carried the matter before 
the highest counselors of Ferdinand and Isabella, where it 
was fiercely debated, particularly by his opponents, who 
sneeringly insisted that, as an adventurer, Columbus showed 
great foresight, for whatever the outcome of his project, he 
would gain for himself titles which the nation could not 
well afford to bestow upon an obscure foreigner, and the 
honor of a distinguished position which had cost him no 
more than a bold and persistent effort to obtain. But 



So COLUMBUS. 

before these scoffers and traducers Columbus had one val- 
orous and devoted defender, Alonzo de Quintanilla, who 
against these arguments interposed his opinion that the 
demands made by the great navigator were not exorbitant, 
considering the services that he was to render; for if he 
gave new kingdoms to Spain he was entitled to commen- 
surate benefits, and if the conditions as submitted were 
taken as an indication of insincerity, he would undertake to 
promise that Columbus would provide one-eighth of the ex- 
penses for a like part of the advantages that would be 
gained by the proposed expedition. 

The circumstances under which Quintanilla was able to 
make this proposition are not exactly clear. By some it is 
maintained that the offer was made upon his own responsi- 
bility, growing out of a determination to advance such a 
part of the expenses from his own private funds in case the 
proposal met the sovereigns' approbation. But by a ma- 
jority of the Columbian biographers it is asserted that the 
proposal was made in pursuance of promises given by 
Martin Alonzo Pinzon, a rich ship owner of Palos, who 
held frequent interviews with Columbus at the monastery 
of La Rabida, and who became an enthusiastic convert and 
promoter of his scheme. 

But for the time the persuasion of Ferdinand de Talavera 
prevailed, for as Ferdinand expressed unqualified aversion 
to the proposal, Isabella Avas brought to conclude that the 
terms were too illiberal, and therefore with much reluctance 
she abandoned the negotiations. 

This conclusion was the severest blow that Columbus had 
yet received. His strong imagination and hopeful disposi- 
tion had filled his days and nights with wondrous visions ; 
already he felt himself the discoverer of inconceivably rich 
kingdoms, over which he was ruler with princely authority ; 
and from the opulent revenues derived therefrom he fore- 



THE NEW WORLD. 8t 

saw himself able to gratify his one great central ambition, 
to equip and lead a vast army against the infidels of the 
Holy Land, from whom he would wrest the sacred 
sepulcher, and plant the cross of Christ in every vantage 
place of the world. A sudden awakening from this blissful 
dream to the melancholy reality of his true condition ; a 
wanderer upon the earth, carrying his beneficent scheme in 
his heart, like a peddler weighted down with a pack of mer- 
chandise seeking a purchaser, fairly broke his spirit, strong 
as it was, and left him to gloomy reflection on the unap- 
preciativeness of those in whose hands reposed the power 
to advance the cause of Christianity and promote the wel- 
fare of humanity. 

With soul bursting with disappointment, Columbus 
turned away from Granada, and set out on his mule for 
Cordova, his mind resolved on taking an afTectionate leave 
of his wife, and then quitting Spain for France or England, 
Avhither the small hope left seemed to lead him. Scarcely 
had he taken his departure, possibly before, when Luiz de 
Santangel, receiver of the ecclesiastical revenues in Aragon, 
hastily sought the Queen, and with irresistible eloquence 
pleaded with her to recall Columbus, and not to permit, 
through ill consideration and unworthy influence, the op- 
portunity which he had offered her to magnify her glory to 
go by unimproved, to the immeasurable gain of some 
other nation, which, with acute foresight, would be certain 
to accept his proposals. While Santangel was thus be- 
seeching the Queen, Quintanilla suddenly and with great 
anxiety, bent as he was upon an identical mission, appeared 
before Isabella and added his persuasions in no less ardent 
speech. The effort was beneficently successful. Rising to 
the occasion, as if God had miraculously influenced her to 
prompt and decisive action, she declared that she would 
undertake the mighty enterprise for the glory of the crown 
6 



^2 ■ COLUMBUS. 

of Castile, and a moment later she dispatched an officer of 
the guards, commanding him to make all possible haste 
to overtake Columbus and summon him back to court. 
Talavera had represented to her that the royal finances were 
too nearly exhausted to undertake such an enterprise at that 
time, even though the promise of success was flattering ; 
but the Queen, fired now with the same zeal that had in- 
spired her two enthusiastic counselors, declared that if 
necessary she would pledge her jewels for the funds required 
to equip the expedition. Santangel, however, assured her 
this would not be necessary, as he was prepared to advance 
the money needed out of the revenues of which he had 
charge, feeling certain that he could obtain the King's 
authorization for the loan. Thus it was that the acceptance 
of Columbus' proposals were brought about at a time when 
he had abandoned all hope of aid from the Spanish crown. 

The messenger overtook Columbus about six miles from 
Granada, just as he had passed over the bridge of Pinos, 
a place celebrated by more than one desperate and bloody 
encounter between Christians and Moors, that served to 
make it almost sacred in the annals of Spanish history. So 
frequent had been his disappointments, and so distrustful 
was he of the motives of sovereigns, of which he had been 
many times the victim, that Columbus hesitated about 
obeying the summons, until persuasion overcame his first 
promptings and he returned, though not without misgiv- 
ings. Scarcely had he gained the outskirts of Granada, 
however, when his doubts were dispelled by the friends who 
came out to receive him, and the magnificent reception 
accorded him by the Queen, who was now anxious to make 
some amends for the chilling conduct of the court towards 
him during the seven painful years that he had been an 
applicant for its helpful recognition. 

Queen Isabella, holding in her exclusive right the crowns 



THE NEW WORLD. 83 

of Leon and Castile, henceforth became the patron of that 
great enterprise which gave to the world a new continent ; 
and the measure of its magnitude now unfolding itself to 
her mind, she accorded to Columbus that deference which 
confident belief in his success appeared to her to warrant. 
But Ferdinand, who held the crown of Aragon only, con- 
tinued both doubtful and suspicious, and withheld his sanc- 
tion, even exacting a return of any moneys advanced out of 
the treasury of Aragon in aid of the scheme, and only gave 
his signature to acts of the Queen through her intercession, 
not as a voluntary performance signifying his approval. 

The articles of agreement and letters-patent conferring 
titles and privileges were signed on the 17th day of April, 
1492, but it was not until a month later that Columbus took 
leave of the Queen and started for Palos, which port had 
been determined upon as the embarking place of the expe- 
dition. In this interval there were daily conferences be- 
tween Columbus and his royal patroness, arranging the pre- 
liminaries and issuing orders, providing for the equipment 
of the vessels. On the eighth of May, as a special mark 
of her favor, the Queen appointed Diego, the eldest son of 
Columbus, who had lived at the monastery of La Rabida for 
seven years, to the position of page to the Prince Royal, with 
a pension of what was equal to about $150 annually. 

Columbus left Granada on the 12th of May and proceeded 
to Cordova, where he took leave of his wife, and then posted 
to Palos with all the necessary orders, among which was one 
that required that municipality to furnish two caravels, 
armed and equipped, and to place the same at the disposal 
of Columbus within ten days. His arrival at that city was 
greeted by Father Juan with great joy, who continued to 
the end to encourage his enterprise and to promote his 
comfort. 

When it was learned that the schemes and theories of 



84 COLUMBUS. 

Columbus were about to be put into execution, and that 
their demonstration was to be attempted by a voyage into 
the vast unknown, the people of Palos were seized witii a 
panic of unconquerable fear. From this port not only were 
the ships to sail, but it soon became known that there 
would be an impressment of sailors to make up the comple- 
ments of the vessels,' for few would volunteer their services 
for what was regarded as the most desperate enterprise evef 
conceived by foolhardy man. We smile at the fear of these 
simple people behind the setting sun of the nineteenth 
century, but in the darkness of ignorance that shrouded the 
Middle Ages we can find more than enough to excuse the 
bravest hearts for quailing before the terrors with which 
story, legend and imagination had invested the realm of 
the boundless sea. 

Science was but a puling infant, and the small knowledge 
that the world possessed of physics and chemistry was born 
of the alembic by accident, with the hated Arab as its pro- 
creator. Thus science was regarded as the offspring of Satan, 
a hellish thing to be abhorred by godly men ; a malevolent 
product of fiend and erinnys, the development of which 
was viewed with deadly alarm. The compass was scarcely 
yet become a guide to mariners over the trackless seas, and 
the horoscope was more potential with superstitious minds 
of the time than all the philosophy of cosmographer, sage 
or scientist. In fact, cosmography helped to create and 
spread belief in the existence of frightful things peopling 
the Stygian world of the sea. Beyond the flaming gates of 
the west, where the sun sank down in his billowy bed, 
there were whirlpools in which Leviathan sported, and 
there stood as sentinels over the ocean's vast domain mon- 
sters more hideous in aspect, more appalling in size, than the 
dragon that guarded the marriage apples of Juno. On the 
charts of some cosmographers there was a representation of 



THE NEW WORLD. 85 

the sea, Mare Tcncbrosiun, around which were reputed to 
live, in a wanton exuberance of horrific terrorism, such con- 
ceptions of a fearful imagination as grififins, hippocentaurs, 
gorgons, goblins, hippogriffs, krakens, sea-serpents, unicorns, 
sagittaries, minotaurs, chimeras, hydras, and other prodigies 
of nature run riot with monstrosity. 

But more direful, ghastly, terrifying than all these was 
the Arabic conception of the fearful dangers that beset the 
gloomy ocean. Before this tropical imagination arose the 
gnarled, horrent, portentous hand of Satan, out of a tene- 
brious waste of boundless waters, with hooked claws, blood- 
thirsty maw, and purpose damning, to grasp any luckless 
ship that might venture within his infernal dominion. And 
this belief spread quickly among all maritime peoples, until 
pagan and Christian alike possessed it. To these conceits 
others were added, being importations from countries of the 
farther east, brought back by such travelers as Mandeville 
and Polo, and received with confidence to swell the fears of 
humanity. These pictured the air filled with demons, clouds 
charged with furies, and islands haunted with wraiths, who, 
holding the elements within their control, could at will lash 
the sea into madness, provoke the wind into hurricane, 
arouse the lightnings of heaven into wrath, and launch 
all these infuriate powers against vessel and crew, over- 
whelming with a destruction dolorific, tragical and harrowing, 
every venturer within these forbidding realms. From these 
calamitous fears may not be omitted other beliefs no less 
terrorizing. The sages of Salamanca voiced only the pre- 
vailing opinion of all Christendom when, in opposing the 
plans of Columbus, they contended that even if the earth 
were round yet there could be no life at the antipodes; that 
along the equator was a wall of heat so fiery as to be all- 
consuming, a very hell of flame as unquenchable as the 
sun ; while beyond lay a sloping plain over which was 



86 COLUMBUS. 

carried every movable thing towards changeless fields of 
ice that gathered into mountain peak around the southern 
pole. 

Considering these general alarms, there is no surprise in 
the fact that when Columbus arrived at Palos, with orders 
from Isabella to impress vessels and sailors for his expedition 
into unknown seas, he found both ship-owners and seamen 
seized with consternation, and not a single caravel in the har- 
bor that was available for his service. They had attempted 
to avoid the requisition by disappearing from the port. 
This condition of affairs caused additional delay, and being 
reported to the Queen she sent an officer of the royal guards 
to exact a penalty of two hundred maravedis (nearly $3.00) 
a day upon every ship-owner who should delay or refuse 
to execute the orders of Columbus. At the same time 
she issued a permit authorizing him to seize any sailor who 
might be found on the Spanish coast and compel his services. 
But neither of these orders was effectual in facilitating prep- 
arations for the voyage, nor was any substantial progress 
made until extremity prompted the officer of the royal 
guards to forcibly take possession of a caravel called the 
Piiita, the property of two citizens of Palos, named Roscon 
and Quinten. These two owners became violent in their 
abuse of Columbus, and the entire town seemed to be upon 
the point of an uprising. In this disturbed condition of the 
populace, which threatened serious consequences, Father 
Juan appeared and exerted his influence to change the crit- 
ical situation into one favoring the schemes of Columbus. 
A man universally loved for his amiability and charity, his 
opinions were equally respected because of his learning and 
piet)'. He strove to dispel the fears of the sailors by 
decrying the baseless superstitions of the age, and by ap- 
pealing to their courage in the name of the Church, which 
now called for their services. He promised them God's 



THE NEW WORLD. 87 

blessings in the great work which foreshadowed the exten- 
sion of Christianity among heathen people, and declared that 
they should account themselves as elected by God for the 
enlargement of His kingdom. After prevailing with sailors, 
the noble father sought ship-owners and used his persuasion 
to induce them to fulfill the orders of the Queen. Among 
these whom he best knew in Palos Avere three brothers 
named Pinzon — Martin Alonzo, PVancis Martin, and Vincent 
Yanez, — and to these he applied his exhortations to lend 
Columbus such vessels as would serve his need. The eldest 
of these, Martin Alonzo, had, as many biographers agree, 
been introduced to Columbus during his long stay at the 
monastery of La Rabida, and manifested such interest in 
his project as to acknowledge belief in his theory and to give 
a conditional promise of assistance. Now, when Father 
Juan brought the Columbian plans, so well formulated and 
promoted by the Queen, before the elder Pinzon, that ex- 
perienced navigator promptly offered his aid, not only as a 
mariner, but in converting opinion from the prejudices that 
seriously threatened, even at this juncture, the success of the 
enterprise. Through Pinzon, the Pope (Lmocent VHL) 
was even brought to give his approbation to the scheme, 
and thus the Church, that at first opposed the enterprise, 
through the Spanish ecclesiastics, became a supporter of 
Columbus, though only by friendly encouragement. Martin 
next secured the co-operation of his two younger brothers, 
and the three presently signed an agreement with Columbus 
under which they were to provide another vessel, the Nina, 
and to take service in the expedition, whilst the youngest 
advanced one-eighth of the expenses, though under circum- 
stances not exactly known. 

The Pinzons were wealthy ship-chandlers in Palos, and 
their position gave them great influence, especially among 
seamen ; and through their exertions the city was at length 



88 COLUMBUS. 

induced to appropriate a third vessel, which bore the name 
of Gallcga. She was classed as a carack, a large ship such 
as the Portuguese afterwards used in their trade with India. 
She was old, and otherwise unfit for the service, but in the 
scarcity of ships, and the difficulties that had already long 
delayed Columbus, he did not hesitate to accept her ; but 
as a propitiation to God, and to place the vessel under His 
special protection, he changed the name, in honor of the 
Blessed Virgin, to Santa Maria {Saint Mary), and made her 
the flagship of his little squadron. 

The Pinzons gave their personal attention to the details 
of the equipment, but it was not until the end of July that 
crews were obtained and the ships made ready for depart- 
ure on the long and perilous cruise. The expedition was 
composed of two caravels, Pinta, commanded by Martin 
Alonozo Pinzon ; the Nina, in charge of Vincent Yancz 
Pinzon ; and the carack, Santa Maria, upon which Colum- 
bus embarked as admiral. It has long been a general belief 
that these were very small and unserviceable vessels hastily 
put to sea and with imperfect equipment. So far from this 
being true, the three vessels were among the largest that 
sailed the Mediterranean or visited the Canaries; and while 
no doubt ill-appointed when they came into the hands of 
the Pinzons, these navigators were too prudent and experi- 
enced to venture on so long a voyage without first putting 
their ships in the most thorough condition. The vessels 
were also well provisioned for a year's voyage and supplied 
with the most effective fire-arms of that period, but the 
working crews were composed of a riff-raff of criminals and 
adventurers, anything but promising, though over these 
most experienced and influential officers were appointed. 

The records are sadly incomplete, but from what has been 
preserved we are able to obtain a good idea of the composi- 
tion of the fleet, though the exact number of men that 



THE NEW WORLD. 89 

completed the force is not known. On the Santa Maria 
there sailed a nephew, by marriage, of Columbus, whose 
name was Diego de Arana ; also Pedro Guttierrez, keeper 
of the stores ; and Rodrigo Sanchez de Segovie, controller 
of the armament ; Rodrigo de Escovedo, register of the 
proceedings, or royal notary ; Bernardin de Tapia, historiog- 
rapher ; Pedro Alonzo Niilo, first pilot ; Barthelemy Rol- 
dan, Fernand Perez Matheos, and Sancho Ruiz, respectively 
second pilot, mate and boatswain ; Ruy Fernandez and 
Juan de la Cosa, sub-ofificers, filling various positions; Luiz 
de Torrez, a Christianized Jew, held the post of interpreter, 
for which his knowledge of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, 
Coptic and Armenian well qualified him. Juan Castillo, a 
gold and silver smith, from Seville, was the official mineral- 
ogist, but his appointment to that position was unfortunate, 
because he knew little or nothing about metals except in 
their refined state. There were also two surgeons, called 
Alonzo and Juan, their surnames never having been re- 
corded in the proceedings certified to by the royal notary. 
Among the crew was an Englishman who passed under the 
patronymic of Tallerte de Lajes, which is not translatable, 
because it is a double family name, thus leaving the sus- 
picion that he had adopted it to conceal his identity ; there 
was also an Irishman, called Guillemia Ires, or in English, 
Billy Rice ; two Portuguese, and one native of the Balearic 
Islands — in all sixty-six persons, not a single one of whom, 
however, was from Palos. 

On the other hand, the crew of the Pinta, numbering 
thirty men, were, with a single exception, viz., Juan Rodri- 
quez Bermejo, all from Palos, those whose names have been 
preserved being Francis Martin Pinzon, brother of Martin 
Alonzo, the captain ; his cousin, Juan de Ungria, Cristobal 
Garcia; Garcia Hernandez, the celebrated physician and 
his nephew, of the same name, who served him {\s secre- 



90 COLUMBUS. 

tary. In addition to the crew there were several passengers, 
who accompanied the expedition as adventurers, or as rep- 
resentatives of commercial houses anxious to extend their 
trade with the rich country of Cathay, 

The Nina, being the smallest of the three vessels, had a 
crew of twenty four men, besides as many more passengers, 
who were willing to brave the dangers to earn the great 
rewards which they thought would be reaped in case the 
voyage proved successful. And it may be truthfully de- 
clared that every one who accompanied the expedition confi- 
dently believed he would find a country where gold abounded 
in such quantities that ships might be loaded with the pre- 
cious metal, and thus each would return enriched almost 
beyond the power to compute. This idea was therefore 
the dominant ambition among all who ventured upon the 
voyage, save alone that Columbus expected to win honors 
more durable than wealth, though his, too, was an inspira- 
tion for the acquisition of great treasures as well. 



CHAPTER V. 

From sorrowing friends on shore Columbus and his fol- 
lowers took their departure amid bestowal of blessin<Ts, 
waving of adieus, and cries that proclaimed the fear they 
would meet them nevermore, while Father Juan and Garcia 
Hernandez watched from the convent window with anx- 
ious solicitude and prayerful hearts the fading sails that 
bore away their friends toward a new world. 

And what a day on which to begin such a dangerous 
voyage ! Among all peoples of Christendom, and partic- 
ularly among sailors, Friday has always been regarded as 
a day of evil, and for ages has the superstition survived 
that nothing begun on that day can succeed, save it be the 
hanging of a man ; and so murderer's day is hangman's day. 
And yet Columbus chose it, believing that instead of the 
day being accursed, it had been blessed by holy sacrifice ; 
by the crucifixion that brought redemption ; by Godfrey 
de Bouillon's victory, that delivered the Holy Sepulcher; 
by the recovery of Granada from Islamism, and the re- 
demption of Spain from the profaners of Christianity. So, 
at the early hour of three o'clock on the morning of August 
3d, 1492, the Columbian fleet raised anchor, and under a 
favoring breeze moved majestically out of the harbor, 
through the mouth of the Odiel River, and soon the chim- 
ing bells from Huelva's steeple, fainter and fainter growing, 
were lost on the ears of the sailors. 

A sailing chart for the expedition had been prepared by 
the Admiral himself after Toscanelli's map, which repre- 

91 



92 COLUMBUS. 

sented the kingdom of Zipangu as occupying the position 
of Florida. Tliis error arose from the estimate of a degree 
of longitude, which, as previously explained, made the 
world of nearly all the cosmographers of the Middle Ages 
about one-third less than its actual size. 

The route, as marked out, lay by the way of the Canary 
Islands, thence with a southwestward swoop directly west, 
and over this way the fleet passed more than a thousand 
miles further to find land, than if the voyage had been 
made due west from Palos. 

In the beginning the weather and wind were auspicious, 
but these favoring conditions, instead of inducing encour- 
agement, operated adversely upon the minds of the sailors, 
whose uneasiness grew greater as the distance from their 
country increased. Towards the end of the third day out 
discovery was made that the steering gear of the Pinta was 
disabled, and examination disclosed the fact that the owners 
from whom the vessel had been impressed had maliciously 
fixed the rudder so that it would break under force of the 
waves. Fortunately the accident occurred when the wind 
was fair, though the ocean was rough, and as Pinzon was a 
resourceful commander, he soon had the damages repaired, 
and the vessels proceeded. 

On the morning of the sixth day the Canaries were in 
sight and a landing was made at Gomera, where all the 
vessels were overhauled, several defects having been de- 
tected, so that it was not until the 9th of September fol- 
lowing that the fleet got again under way. 

Meanwhile, a serious danger had arisen from the hostil- 
ity of Portugal. The news of the sailing of Columbus had 
spread along the Spanish coast, and soon reached Lisbon. 
The reader will remember how, through all his years of 
waiting, Columbus had at intervals renewed with the Court 
of Portugal, as well as with the Court of England, an inter- 



THE NEW WORLD. 93 

mittent correspondence. It was evidently his intent to 
hold these powers in reserve against the ultimate defeat of 
his proposals in Spain. As soon as King John heard how 
at last the voyage of discovery had been actually under- 
taken under the patronage of his rivals, his animosity was 
so great that he resolved to resort to the most desperate 
expedient to thwart the enterprise. In pursuance of this 
despicable resolution, he hastily fitted and sent out an ar- 
mament to arrest, and if necessary to destroy, the fleet of 
Columbus. While his vessels were undergoing repairs at 
the Canaries, the Admiral learned from a caravel just ar- 
rived from Ferro, an island of the group, that the Portu- 
guese fleet was making ready to put to sea in pursuit. 
This news induced him to hasten his departure, but scarcely 
had he got under sail when an eruption of the volcano of 
Teneriffe threw the sailors into a panic of terror, who saw 
ni the shooting flames, and heard in the rumbling explo- 
sions from the heart of the mountain, Tophet bursting 
through the sea in awful portentive of a horrible fate to 
which they were surely being drawn. Columbus was finally 
able to assuage these fears of his crews by explaining to 
them the frequent eruptions of Etna and Vesuvius, Avhich 
people had long ceased to dread. But for three days there 
was a calm, during which they had not progressed more 
than three leagues from their last anchorage, and all the 
while expecting to see Portuguese ships heave in sight in 
pursuit. That they did not appear is presented as an evi- 
dence in support of the assertion that Portugal did not 
send a squadron to interfere with Columbus or his expedi- 
tion. 

When at length the good sea breeze swelled the sails 
again and the voyage into the great unknown was renewed, 
loud cries of complaining fear broke from the sailors, who 
now felt themselves adrift on the boundless flood where 



94 COLUMBUS. 

"All delicate days and pleasant, all spirits and sorrow were cast; 
Far out with the foam of the present, that sweeps to the surf of the past ; 
Where beyond the extreme sea-wall, and between the remote sea-gates, 
Waste water washes, and tali ships founder, and deep death waits." 

Possessed of an extraordinary imagination, fortified by 
sincerity, Columbus appealed alike to the courage and 
avarice of his clamorous and intensely superstitious sailors. 
He assured them constantly of God's blessings, for that 
they had been called in a most righteous service which 
must redound to the glory of themselves in that life ever- 
lasting. But when their religious fervor languished, 
Columbus told the men of the wealth they would acquire 
in the land to which they were sailing, where gold and 
precious stones so abounded that houses might be built 
and streets paved with either. He undoubtedly believed 
this to be true himself, and his own conviction was thus 
the more effectively impressed upon those to whom he re- 
cited these prophecies of incredible treasure in the land to 
which they were bound. 

Columbus, while chimerical in many things, was never- 
theless subtle in contriving against the mutinous spirit of 
his men, and his shrewdness is shown by many wise expe- 
dients. He had delivered, with becoming gravity, an 
opinion that the country of Zipangu would be gained by a 
sail of something more than 700 leagues to the west, but 
lest his belief prove ill-founded, and that the voyage 
might, if necessary, be prosecuted much farther, he kept 
two log-books, in one of which a false reckoning was kept, 
representing the distance made each day as less than it 
really was, while the other was prepared with great accu- 
racy to serve as a guide for future voyages. The former 
was daily exposed to all on board for inspection, while 
the latter was carefully preserved under lock and key. 
The sailors were thus deceived into the belief that their 



THE NEW WORLD. 95 

progress was extremely slow, and that the slope of the earth 
must accordingly be very small, if indeed it were percepti- 
ble, and that a ship before the wind could in any event 
overcome it and return to Spain. 

On the 14th of September, while the vessels were sailing 
in close company, a large mainmast was observed floating 
on the water, evidently out of a ship considerably greater 
in size than the Santa Maria. Columbus at once hailed 
the relic as a favorable omen, but the effect on the sailors 
was panicky. Here, indeed, was a part of a ship that had 
preceded them, but to their timid minds it came as a warn- 
ing of the doom that awaited them ; as a proof that no 
vessel could survive the dreadful dangers which lurked in 
cloud, wind and wave in the region where damnation held 
dominion. About the same time Columbus discovered 
that there was a variation of the magnetic needle, which 
increased as he proceeded farther west, and while he tried 
to keep the knowledge of this fact from his crew, the pilots 
soon detected it and then consternation was a hundredfold 
increased. What possessed the compass? Was it some 
invisible power that was turning the needle from its true 
direction in order to lead them into some whirlpool, or 
bring them within the influence of other destructive agency ? 
So serious did this phenomenon appear, that Columbus 
was himself greatly disturbed by it, but he contrived an 
explanation which partially allayed alarm, but it may be 
added that while the fact is now universally known, science 
has not yet been able to determine positively the cause. 

Now the vessels entered the region of the westward 
trade winds, which urged them along at an increased speed, 
naturally arousing new fears, but these were directly quieted 
by the sudden appearance of two birds, one a Mother Carey 
chicken (petrel) and the other a wagtail, which it was errone- 
ously believed never ventured a great distance from land. 



96 COLUMBUS. 

Following this supposed indication of an approaching shore, 
on the same night the crews were again plagued to distrac- 
tion in beholding a flaming meteor swiftly speeding across 
the sky and plunging into the sea five leagues distant from 
the ships. The men at once accepted this as a signal from 
heaven heralding their quick destruction, but Columbus 
regarded it as a holy beacon, and as a presage of the certain 
triumph which awaited the expedition. 

Thereafter every natural condition was favorable to a 
happy passage ; the sky was serene, the winds steady from 
the east, sending the vessels plowing the waves in their 
westward course, and the ocean was as peaceful as a babe 
sleeping on its mother's breast. Under the balmy fragrance 
of the healthful air the mind of Columbus became roseate 
with blissful reflections. " If we only had the song of the 
nightingale," he writes, '* we might well believe ourselves 
ashore among the waving groves, and near the flower-scent- 
ed gardens of Spain." 

On the 19th of September a mist showed on the sea un- 
disturbed by wind, which was taken as a precursor of land, 
and on the Friday following other evidence that the shore 
lay not very far beyond was presented by a mass of weeds 
into which the ships thrust their bows. A booby bird came 
sailing by to increase the illusion, and nian\' fishes sported 
about the vessels, some of which were harpooned, affording 
a sportive divertisement that was intensely animating. But 
the weeds became more dense and tangled, until they grew 
into an imposing barrier to farther progress and aroused the 
sailors to a sense of new dangers more appalling than they 
had before conceived. Here, thought they, is the boundary 
of the world, the interdict God has placed upon the passage 
of mortals. Once within the remorseless fingers of this 
verdant sea extrication will be impossible ; famine seemed 
to show its hideous head ; thirst pointed its pale fingers 



THE \EW WORLD. 9^ 

towards their quivering lips ; in this turgid lake of damned 
engorgement, green with the life of death, livid with the 
slime of corruption, may be the haunt of the kraken, whose 
palpy arms could embrace a ship to its destruction ; on this 
great prairie of the ocean must live the hundred monsters 
that played such a part in the sea-tales of the age, browsing 
off an herbage that empoisoned every other living thing. 
Under its slowly pulsing bosom there may be deadly reefs 
to grind away the bottoms of the ships, or sandy bars to 
hold them until storm, lightning or waterspout could com- 
plete their annihilation. 

But still, the ships drove on through this Sargasso sea of 
impediment, until at last a passage was accomplished, but 
with this abatement of fear a new alarm arose over the in- 
variable wind that day after day impelled them westward, 
until belief became fixed that return was impossible. No 
reason that Columbus could command would give the crews 
encouragement ; despair was followed by a mutinous and 
murderous spirit ; many of them being criminals, whose 
punishments were remitted to this service, they began to 
clamor for a victim ; to openly murmur their seditions 
against Columbus, who might have fallen before their venge- 
ance had not an adverse wind begun to blow at the most 
auspicious moment, as if to prove the unreasonableness of 
their apprehensions. 

On the 23d of September, Martin Alonzo Pinzon mounted 
the high stern of the Pinta and shouted with joy, " Land ! 
Land ! I declare my right to the pension." Others were 
equally certain that they saw land, whereupon there was an 
excitement of uncontrollable delight among all the crews, 
until in a little while they perceived that what was taken 
for land was only a thick bank of clouds, and the despond- 
ency which succeeded was the greater for this momentary 
enthusiasm. 
7 



98 COLUMBUS. 

Complaints of a violent character were renewed, and 
Columbus became, in the eyes of the sailors, a braggart, 
humbug and fraud, whose own nation would not recognize 
him, who had deceived the Spanish sovereigns, and whose 
blind persistence would drive them to destruction. They 
accordingly favored a submission to him of the alternative 
of turning back or being cast into the sea. The Pinzons 
were cognizant of this mutinous spirit, but held themselves 
aloof from either encouraging or reproving it, but this inac- 
tion proved how strong had grown their prejudice against 
Columbus because of his refusal to turn aside in quest of 
islands which the Pinzons believed lay near by, to the 
north. 

From time to time cries of " land " were made, but every 
such announcement proved delusive, and finally the long 
pent-up torrent of fear, envy and hatred broke, in which 
even the Pinzons joined. The united demand was for an 
immediate return ; all authority was dissipated, the crews 
were now a mob, and before this maddened body of infu- 
riate men Columbus was powerless beyond the influence of 
his persuasion, which, however, commanded respect when 
his orders would have incited a swift vengeance. To these 
howling caitiffs, therefore, he appealed, in the name of the 
holy image that was emblazoned on the royal flag which 
floated from the mast of the Santa Maria, to their courage 
as men, to their cupidity as slaves of avarice, and at last 
begged them to renounce their evil purpose, or give him 
three more days in which to seek the land for which they 
had set out amid the prayers of their nation. This request 
was finally granted and the disaffected men went back sul- 
lenly to their several posts of duty. 

On the following day evidences that land was not far 
away began to multiply, while the wind increased to push 
the vessels more rapidly forward. A green rush was seen 



THE NEW WORLD. 99 

by the crew of the Santa ]\Iaria, and ahnost immediately 
after the lookout on the Pinta observed two sticks which 
had been evidently fashioned by human hands. Those of 
the Nina, who were like vigilant in their watch, were fa- 
vored by the sight of a green bush bearing clusters of red 
berries, all of which several indications that land was near 
revived the spirits of the crews, and good humor and de- 
lightful anticipations took the place of fear and rebellious 
feelings. Seeing that the men were now in an amiable 
frame of mind, Columbus ordered a hymn (the Salve Re- 
gina) to be sung, and then, after discoursing to them on the 
manifestations of God's protecting care throughout the 
voyage, elated them beyond measure by predicting that 
land would be discovered before another night was ended. 
He also charged them to be particularly watchful, and 
promised to reward the one who should first perceive the 
shore with the gift of his beautiful velvet doublet, which 
was trimmed with gold lace and considered a thing of great 
value. This premium was to be given in addition to a pen- 
sion of ten thousand maravedis ($36), promised by the 
Queen to the one who should first see the land of the new 
world. 

Every one on the three ships was now so excited with 
expectancy that there was no desire to sleep ; each was 
anxious to earn the double reward, and all were alike curi- 
ous to catch a glimpse of the unknown shore. 

About ten o'clock that night, as Columbus was watching 
from the poop-deck of his vessel, his searching eye caught 
the gleam of a moving light in the distance. Not fully 
satisfied of his vision, he called two others to watch, and 
they also beheld the same glorious beacon ; but then it 
faded and was seen no more. Word passed quickly from 
ship to ship, and the watch by all became more vigilant. 
Sails were shortened, but wind and current still gave them 



100 COLUMBUS. 

a goodly pace, and thus they pressed on until two o'clock 
in the morning of Friday, October I2th, four hours after 
Columbus had seen the fitful light, when a cannon shot 
from the Pinta, which was a league in advance of the Santa 
Maria, gave loud-voiced proclamation of the discovered 
shore ; whereupon every one fell down in worshipful atti- 
tude and lifted their voices in holy praise and thankfulness. 
Juan Rodriguez Bermejo had been the first to discover, 
through the haze of approaching morning, the high lifting 
banks of a land on the western boundary of that gloomy 
ocean which had held the secrets of infinity, and become in 
the minds of men the representation of a boundless im- 
mensity. 

The men who had been moved by mutinous disposition 
two days before were now prostrate in homage before the 
commander whose life they had threatened ; from condem- 
nation they lifted their voices in adulation ; from an intens- 
ity of depression, from a prostration of dread alarm, they 
were suddenly become jocund, ready to embrace all the 
world, so great was their delirium of thankfulness. In 
avowing their obligations to Columbus, they would also do 
penance for the crime of their evil machinations ; and hav- 
ing no better gift to bestow they would acknowledge him 
as the first discoverer of land, thereby giving to him the 
fullest meed of honor, and refute the claim of the common 
sailor Bermejo. And to the astonishment of all mankind, 
the pension which he manifestly did not earn, in his thirst 
for all the glory, ambition-mad, he took to himself ; a re- 
ward that in all justice belonged to the poor sailor whose 
lot was so humble he could not defend his right. 

What was the light that Columbus indistinctly saw? 
The Pifita was at least three miles ahead, and none of her 
crew saw it ; may it not, therefore, have been flashes from 
some taper on board that vessel? Indeed, since the dis- 



THE NEW WORLD. loi 

tance from land must have been at least fifteen miles, no 
one from the ship's deck could have perceived an object on 
the flat shore because of the convexity of the earth. It is 
also possible that the light which Columbus saw emanated 
from a canoe which may have been passing from one island 
to another, as it was a very common custom for islanders 
to carry fire upon a fireplace of clay laid in the center of 
their canoes. In fact, the fluttering light was not regarded 
by Columbus as reliable evidence of the proximity of land 
until after a cannon-shot from the Pinta gave announce- 
ment of Bermejo's discovery. And yet he claimed and 
possessed himself of the pension, to which the poor sailor 
alone had any just right. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Under the spell of a wondrous enchantment, a vision as 
glorious as that which broke upon the sight of Sir Galahad, 
revealing the Holy Grail of his pious search, was the beatific 
view presented to the longingly expectant crews when the 
light of morning revealed the wondrous scene ! There be- 
fore them lay a stretch of landscape marvelous for its 
diversity of yellow sands, softly lapping surf, swelling un- 
dulations, in a stretch of opalescent mists ; flowery groves 
that breathed a fragrance like incense to advancing day ; 
blue waters of a lake peeping in gladness through forests of 
lofty evergreens, while along the beach, or resting in awe- 
some admiration beneath broad-sheltering trees, were a 
hundred specimens of an alien race, tawny, sun-browned, 
symmetrical, disappareled, gazing with bewildered surprise 
at their celestial-appearing visitors. 

In the fair view before them, whether it were the shores 
of Zipangu, or other lands of the blessed, there was eager- 
ness to press its bosom ; but with becoming precaution the 
ships were first placed in a state of defense, and then each 
member of the expedition arrayed himself in corselet, tabard, 
and helmet, and with such weapons as match-lock, pike, and 
cross-bow, prepared to take possession of the beautiful land. 
Columbus, however, wearing the dignities of Grand Admiral 
of the ocean, and Viceroy of all the lands he should dis- 
cover, presented a spectacle which might well impress even 
those familiar with court regalia and imperial vestments, 
for he clothed himself in the richest raiment procurable in 

102 



■ THE NEW WORLD. 103 

Spain, provided before his embarkation in anticipation of a 
meeting with the Great Khan of Tartary. Above the scar- 
let mantle that covered his shoulders, he bore the royal 
flag, on which was emblazoned the image of Jesus Christ, 
and taking his position in the bow of the first boat, started 
for the inviting shore. Immediately behind him came the 
yawls of the Nina and Pinta, bearing their commanders, 
each of whom supported royal standards of Castile on 
which were displayed the letters F. and Y., initials of the 
sovereigns, Fernando and Ysabel. 

With lusty arms the rowers pushed the boats rapidly 
towards the shore, nearly a league from the anchorage, 
where a landing having been made,* with a solemnity 
befitting so thankful an occasion, Columbus planted the 
standard of the cross and the flags of Spain in the yielding 
sands. This done he lifted his voice in a prayer, only the 
first accents of which have been preserved by history, while 
those about him fell upon their knees with offerings of 
thanksgiving : " Lord Eternal and Almighty God ! Who, 
by Thy sacred word, hast created the heavens, the earth 
and the seas, may Thy name be blessed and glorified every- 
where. May Thy Majesty be exalted, who hast deigned to 
permit that by Thy humble servant Thy sacred name should 
be made known and preached in this other part of the 
world." Having thus made his obligations to God, he gave 
to the island the name of San Salvador (Holy Saviour), and 
then took possession of it in the name of the Lord Jesus 
Christ for the Crown of Castile. A large cross, made from 
limbs of a tree, was next set up to mark the landing site, 
and then efforts were made to communicate with the 
natives, who stood off at a considerable distance watching 
with fear and trembling the actions of their strange visitors. 

* Billy Rice, the Irishman, is said to have been first to leap on shore, carry- 
ing out the line with which to make ^he yawl fast, 



104 COLUMBUS. 

By signs of amity, and a proffer of presents, Columbus at 
length induced some of the bolder to approach, whom he so 
graciously received that their companions directly came for- 
ward, and an agreeable intercourse was presently established ; 
but as their language was not understood by any of Columbus* 
men, communication was conducted entirely by means of 
signs. By these, however, it was learned that the island 
upon which landing had thus been made was called by the 
natives Giianaliani. Subsequent investigation proved that 
it was one of a considerable group afterwards named the 
Bahamas. The imperfect knowledge acquired by Columbus, 
and especially the indefinite description which he gave of 
the island has been the cause of much dispute respecting 
the exact land which he first discovered. While a majority 
of authorities maintain that San Salvador of modern maps 
was the real landing place, others declare that, from the 
brief description given, Watling's Island is manifestly the 
land of first discovery ; but the impossibility of settling 
this controversy renders a discussion of the question out 
of place here. 

The appearance of the people, w^hich interests us most, 
is thus described by Columbus in his journal : " The men 
and women go naked as they were born into the world. 
They are well shaped and with agreeable features. Their 
hair, as coarse as horse hair, falls over their foreheads, and 
is left to grow in a long tail behind, but it is not crisp. 
These men are in truth a fine race ; they have lofty fore- 
heads, and bigger heads than any natives I have ever seen 
before in my travels. Their eyes are large and fine, their 
legs straight, stature high, and their movements graceful. 
Some are painted a blackish color, but are of the same 
tawny hue as are the natives of the Canary Islands. Many 
are painted white, red or some other color, as to the whole 
body, or the face around the eyes, and sometimes only the 



THE NEW WORLD. 105 

nose. They have no weapons such as we have, and seem 
not even to know the properties of weaponry/' 

But though simple in their manner, the natives had such 
weapons as lances made by pointing pieces of cane with 
shark's teeth and obsidian. Some of the people were 
observed to bear the marks of serious wounds, received, as 
they explained, in battles with natives of neighboring islands 
who sought to enslave them. When confidence was estab- 
lished, the islanders curiously inquired, by means of signs, if 
their visitors were not heaven-descended, for in their simple 
faith they believed the vessels riding at anchor before them 
were huge creatures of the air that had descended in the 
night, bearing to them celestial passengers, the object of 
whose visit they could not determine. But familiar inter- 
course reassured them, and before the day was ended they 
manifested the greatest curiosity to know • their visitors 
better, and evidenced their feeling of security by the freest 
commingling and interchange of civilities, taking the form of 
active barter of nets, fruits, cotton yarns, parrots and oc- 
casional pieces of gold, for the attractive trifles that the 
Spaniards had to give. 

On the following morning hundreds of the natives came 
off to the ships in canoes made from the trunks of trees, 
some of which were large enough to comfortably carry as 
many as fifty men, while others were so small as to scarcely 
support a single person. But the islanders had such famil- 
iarity with the water that they appeared aquatic in their 
habits, and to be capsized miles from the shore gave them 
no uneasiness, for they would dextrously right their crafts 
and bale them out with gourds with which every paddler 
was provided, in anticipation of such accidents. 

Observing that a few of the islanders wore small orna- 
ments of gold in their noses, the cupidity and avarice of 
the Spaniards was quickly excited, and with great eagerness 



io6 COLUMBUS. 

Columbus inquired whence came those piece of the precious 
metal. They responded by informing him that somewhere 
south of them there was a larger island ruled by a king 
who possessed immense quantities of gold, and whose drink- 
ing vessels were all made of that metal. He asked some of 
them to accompany him upon a visit to that auriferous 
land, but they refusing, in his anxiety to enrich himself 
and followers, Columbus hastened his departure. Herein 
was the beginning of that long and painful story of the 
cupidity, wandering and gold-greed with which the Spanish 
adventurers and heroes of the sixteenth century were all 
inflamed. 

Only one thing restrained the desire of the crews for an 
immediate embarkation to pursue their quest for gold, and 
this was the condemnable passion of lustful appetite. Be- 
fore their unbridled and lascivious senses the Spaniards saw 
a people of modest manners and a guileless disposition, and 
this they would violate by inaugurating an immorality to 
which the natives were yet strangers. We cannot fail to re- 
flect upon the astounding satire furnished by the contrast 
of naked modesty and pure manners of this untutored island 
tribe as compared with the lustful appetite, calculating ava- 
rice, distrust, latent cruelty, and perfidious spirit of the 
Spanish mariners, products as they were of one of the oldest 
civilizations — a civilization upon which the forces of litera- 
ture, art and so-called religion had operated for nearly a 
thousand years. 

Believing that the island upon which he had landed was 
one of the five thousand described by Marco Polo as lying 
in the sea off Cathay, Columbus regarded the natives as a 
fraction of the great races of India, wherefore he called them 
Indians. But they bore none of the characteristics ob- 
served in the peoples with which Polo came in contact. 
Jf, however, they were a far outlying contingent of the 



THE NEW WORLD. I07 

natives of India, or Zipangu, they must be serviceable in 
pursuing further discoveries, so Columbus took on board 
his ship (by abduction) seven of the most promising is- 
landers,* whom he so diligently instructed that they soon 
became intelligent interpreters, and with these, on the 14th 
of October, he renewed his voyage. To more thoroughly 
acquaint himself with the size and productions of the island, 
however, he sailed entirely around it, finding that it 
abounded with cocoanuts and bananas — fruits never before 
seen by Europeans — and such products as yams, cotton, 
yucca, and pine-apples. But he deemed it unsuited for 
colonization, because of its smallness, and he turned the 
prows of his vessels to renew the quest for the mainland of 
Cathay, which he hoped soon to gain, and there presenting 
to the Grand Khan the letter of friendship from his sov- 
ereigns, gather the rich recompense of his success and then 
return in triumph to receive the favors of Isabella and the 
plaudits of mankind. 

A few hours' sail from Guanahani brought the expedition 
in sight of a great cluster of islands, more than a hundred 
of which his native interpreters named. One of the largest 
appearing he approached, and finding the shores inviting 
made a landing, and erecting thereon a cross as a sign of 
Christian occupation, christened the island St. Mary of tJie 
Conception. Two other large islands he named respectively 
Fcrnandine and Isabella. The latter was so full of natural 
delights that he remained there for two days exploring its 
beauties of lovely scenery, picturesque groves, flowery 
meads, and fruit-bearing trees. The air was full of sweet- 
est fragrance and resonant with the voice of warbling birds, 
no less gorgeously arrayed than tuneful. The natives were 

* " I took some Indians, by force, from the first island I came to, that thef 
might leani our language, and tell what they kne\v of their country. "—Zf'/'/'t'r 
of Columbus to Don RaJ>ha(l Sivich(^, 



loS COLUMBUS. 

very like those with whom he first came in contact, but 
they Hvcd in huts more artistically constructed, and pos- 
sessed more ornaments of gold. On the island — betraying 
its volcanic origin — was a considerable lake of crystal water 
abounding with fish. While walking along the shore Co- 
lumbus was at first horror-stricken by the sight of a mon- 
ster lizard with armament of bristling scales, dreadful claws 
and hideous head. But instead of standing upon the offen- 
sive, the creature retreated into the shallow water, whither 
Columbus pursued and killed it with a lance. It being of 
such remarkable size and repelling aspect he took off its 
skin, which he declares measured seven feet in length, and 
preserved it as an example of the frightful reptilian life of 
the new world. This lizard was an iguana, common in the 
inter-tropical countries of America, where, despite its horrid 
appearance, the flesh is so highly esteemed as to readily 
command twenty-five cents per pound in the markets. It 
is not known to exceed five feet in length. 

But all the beauties or wonders of earth could not long 
retain the interest of Columbus. He gave to them the trib- 
ute of a passing notice, but his mind was absorbed with 
an ambition for gain ; his thirst for gold was unappeasable ; 
his day-dreams were gilded with the treasure which he set 
out to seek. Of this avaricious passion Barry, the compiler 
from De Lorgues, his most ardent Catholic admirer, thus 
writes : " In this voyage his (Columbus') object was less to 
observe nature than to acquire gold, in order to make Spain 
interested in the matter of continuing the discoveries, by 
giving palpable proofs of their importance. He sought 
gold, especially in order to commence the fund of the im- 
mense treasure he desired to amass. The deliverance of 
the Holy Land and the purchase of the tomb of Jesus 
Christ were always before his eyes — the supreme object of 
his ambition. He desired then to collect, in order to con- 



THE NEW WORLD. 109 

vert them into gold, the spices of the Orient, the frontiers 
of which he believed he had reached. But it was gold that 
he sought particularly. Everywhere he inquired diligently 
about the land of gold. The sight of the precious metal 
exerted in him an ardent desire for it and an almost loving 
eagerness. Never, perhaps, did a Christian desire gold for 
a like purpose. Not being able to find some as soon as he 
expected, he addressed himself to God, and besought Him 
to direct him to some and to its beds." 

This, while intending to present Columbus as a man pos- 
sessed of the holiest ambition, actually represents him as 
one of the most rapacious, venal and greedy mercenaries of 
which history gives us any account. How his conscience 
could conceive and defend an aspiration to purchase the 
Holy Sepulcher surpasses our comprehension. Such an 
ambition is a reflection upon the wisdom and power of God 
Himself, who for His own reasons suffered and continues 
to suffer the enemies of Christianity to hold possession of 
that sacred shrine, against which seas of blood have surged 
in vain. And the unholiness of his ambition is emphasized 
by the cruel methods which he employed in his mad efforts 
to acquire riches. The burning of villages, massacres of 
defenseless natives, the inauguration of every iniquity, and 
lastly the enslavement of helpless men, women and children, 
until his more merciful sovereign cried out against his 
cruelties, whose heart would not permit her to profit by 
such inhumanities — these are some of the results of his 
wanton greed, his impious lust, his worldly aspirations. 
While remembering the glory of his accomplishment in dis- 
covering a new world, let us not forget the ignominy of 
those acts by which the inoffensive, trustful, guileless and 
affectionate natives of the West Indies were converted into 
slaves, and oppressed into the most debased savagen,'. Not 
even the fanaticism of the age nor the hypocrisy of his pre- 



110 COLUMBUS. 

tensions can excuse him of the crime of barbarous ferocity, 
of voracious, bloodthirsty avarice, in which disposition he 
was in no wise different from the members of his expedi- 
tion. 

Before leaving the island of Isabella, Columbus was told 
of a country somewhere to the southwest which the natives 
called Cuba, and upon which it was declared there was such 
an abundance of gold, that a warlike people from the north 
frequently invaded the country and carried ofi immense 
quantities of that valuable metal. To this exciting recital 
was added a report that there were on Cuba many large 
cities ruled by powerful monarchs, and that in every respect 
the country was the most delightful and the richest in all 
the world. Or rather, it may be better said, that Columbus 
so interpreted the signs by which communication was 
carried on ; but his imagination was at all times so energetic 
that he painted the most commonplace things with the 
colors of fancy, and this strong ideality was constantly lead- 
ing him into the by-ways of sore disappointment. 

Believing implicitly in the wild romance of Cuban gran- 
deur and inconceivable wealth, Columbus again spread his 
sails, on the 24th of October, for the shore of that gold- 
embroidered country ; but at the moment of weighing 
anchor one of the interpreters, obtained at Guanahani, 
leaped overboard and made his escape to shore, despite 
every exertion made by four sailors in a boat to overhaul 
him. Contrary winds also rose, followed by terrible rain- 
storms, so that progress was greatly impeded. On the 
third da}' a cluster of islands, now known as the Mucaras, 
was passed, and on the succeeding day the shores of Cuba, 
at a point a few miles west of where the town of Nuevitas 
del Principe now stands, broke into view. The most casual 
view gave conclusive indication that the land was an exten- 
sive one, even continental in appearance. Bold promon- 



THE NEW WORLD. ni 

tories distinguished the shores, and a large river was ob- 
served winding its way through a rich valley and emboguing 
into the ocean near the point where the shore-line was first 
seen. 

The ships were run into an estuary, which served as an 
excellent harbor, and where an abundance of crystal-like 
fresh water was obtainable, and a landing made. Immedi- 
ately upon going on shore Columbus took possession of 
the island (which he thought might possibly be the main- 
land of Zipangu, or Cathay) in the name of the Empress 
Isabella, and in honor of the heir apparent. Prince Juan, he 
called the country Juanna, and the port where he landed 
San Salvador. 

The landing of the Spaniards had attracted the surprised 
attention of many natives, who watched with anxious curi- 
osity from afar the strange beings and marvelous boats that 
had thus visited their shores ; but they in turn were ob- 
served, and also a small village of circular, conical-roofed 
huts that lay half concealed in the deep shade of a luxuri- 
ous forest. When the ceremony of occupation was com- 
pleted, and a wooden cross set up as a mark of possession, 
Columbus, with several of his men, paid a visit to the vil- 
lage, which, however, was deserted upon their approach. 
Entering the abandoned huts he was much disappointed to 
find therein the same evidences of poverty that distinguished 
the islanders of Guanahani, and with no appearances of a 
better social condition. He found many fishing nets, har- 
poons pointed with bone, carved pieces of wood, and swing- 
ing couches made of netting which the natives called /iajnacs, 
a name that survives with us in the slight change to Jianiniock. 
Proceeding farther towards the interior Columbus found a 
marvelous diversity of beauteous landscape, groves of palm 
trees, abundance of bananas, a sensuous atmosphere per- 
fume laden, crystal waters, and great numbers of parrots 



112 COLUMBUS. 

and other beautifully-feathered birds. He was fairly over- 
whelmed by the natural splendors that lay spread about 
him, but while believing this must be the mainland of Asia 
he could not account for the primitive character of the 
people, who were evidently unacquainted with any of the 
forms of civilization. 

After many efforts, Columbus at length persuaded a few 
of the natives to approach and receive presents from his 
hands, and intercourse once established, he was quickly sur- 
rounded by swarms of islanders, who manifested desire for 
pacific relations by bringing quantities of fruits to the 
Spaniards, as offerings of homage. By them he was told 
that the country was an island, and near the center were 
mountains of gold, while along the watercourses precious 
pearls and stones might be found in great numbers; that 
the capital city lay not far distant and was more beautiful 
than any other thing on the island. This information fired 
the Spaniards with new desire, and they were all exceedingly 
anxious to begin the gathering of riches which they believed 
were scattered about in inconceivable profusion not many 
miles distant. 

In this quest for the bag of gold that lies at the foot of 
the rainbow, Columbus set out with his resolute followers 
in a westerly direction along the coast, until another village 
was sighted at the mouth of a river, before which the squad- 
ron anchored, and a visit made to the town. The inhabit- 
ants fled with precipitation to the hills, leaving their visitors 
in quiet possession, and they could not be induced to return 
and open communication. The houses composing this vil- 
lage were more pretentious in size and architectural appear- 
ance than those first visited, and within them Columbus 
found rudely carved effigies and wooden visors of hideous 
visage, besides harpoons, fishing nets and such other para- 
phernalia as indicated the poverty and low superstitions of 



THE NEW WORLD. 113 

the natives, but there were neither gold, silver or precious 
stones. 

The promise of reward being again disappointing, Co- 
lumbus set his sails once more and proceeded along the 
north coast until he reached an extensive headland, to 
which he gave the name of Cape of Palms, and which is 
but little more than one hundred miles from the southern 
point of Florida. Here he met with some natives who told 
him that just around the promontory a large river emptied 
into the sea, while a short distance beyond, no more than 
four days' journey, lay Cubanacan. At the mention of this 
word Columbus was much excited, because he now believed 
that the resemblance in pronunciation between this word 
and Kublai Khan was evidence that he was approaching the 
capital of that Cathayan monarch. Unfortunately, as was 
long afterwards ascertained, the expression Cubanacan^ in 
the native language, signified the center or interior of the 
island. 

The anchors were weighed and the voyage of discovery 
was continued, but no river was to be seen, and now, believ- 
ing that he had misunderstood his informants, Columbus 
returned to the mouth of the Rio delos Mares and renewed 
intercourse with the natives, whom he found anxious to 
barter, and pacific in disposition. In the belief that gold 
abounded somewhere in the vicinity, he ordered that noth- 
ing but pieces of that precious metal be accepted in ex- 
change for articles which the Spaniards had to trade, but 
the anxiety of the natives and the vainness of this measure 
soon convinced him of the extreme scarcity of gold there- 
abouts. But one Cuban was seen supporting a piece of 
silver from his nose, who, becoming a great object of inter- 
est, told Columbus that four days' journey in the interior 
was a large city in which lived a mighty emperor, who, 
having learned of the white visitors, had sent messengers 



114 COLUMBUS. 

to invite them to visit his capital. This news was most en- 
couraging, and that he might display the courtesies of civiliza- 
tion, Columbus chose an embassy of four, composed of the 
polyglot Jew, Rodrigo de Jarez, a Guanahani native, and a 
Cuban guide, who were provided with many presents, such 
as hawk-bells, glass trinkets, and a variety of other gew- 
gaws. Besides the offerings, they were bearers of letters 
addressed to the Grand Khan, conveying profound con- 
siderations of the Spanish sovereigns, and expressions of 
desire to establish amicable relations with the Asiatic poten- 
tate whose kingdom Columbus believed had been reached. 

During the absence of the embassy, which Columbus 
knew must occupy several days, he employed the time 
making careful examination of the adjacent country and its 
productions. Finding the river, near which the ships were 
anchored, navigable for considerable crafts, he ascended it 
several miles and was rewarded by finding many valuable 
woods, such as cinnamon, nutmeg, rhubarb, and, what was 
more gratifying still, a tuber which the natives baked in 
the fire and ate with great relish, and which the Spaniards 
found delightfully palatable. This proved to be the potato 
(derived from the native name batata), little valued at the 
time, but, as Mr. Irving observes, " a more precious ac- 
quisition to man than all the spices and pearls of the east." 

The farther he proceeded, however, the more marvelous 
grew the tales of native wealth, until even the incompar- 
able credulity of the Spaniards became heavily taxed. The 
Indians told, with deceptive gravity, of places in the country 
where people wore bracelets of gold and necklaces of fine 
pearls ; but some of these marvelously rich natives, they 
declared, were noted equally for their astounding aspect. 
One race, living in the district of Bohio, had only a single 
eye placed in the center of the forehead, and were extremely 
fierce. Another people, whose principal capital was called 



THE NEW WORLD. 115 

Kaniba, had the heads of dogs. They were not only brutal 
in appearance, but even more so in disposition, for they 
were cannibals and took special pleasure in drinking the 
blood of their enemies. There was also an island named 
Mantinino, in the midst of a large lake, inhabited by women 
only, who frequently fought with men on the main shore, 
and who tortured their prisoners with fiendish cruelty. 

We are impressed by the similarity between these tradi- 
tions and those of several Central African tribes, which are so 
nearly identical that the coincidence seems to point unmis- 
takably to the same origin. Can this fact be taken as an 
evidence of the ancient existence of a land connection be- 
tween the West Indies, South America and Africa? Is it 
a link in the chain of proof that this stretch of waters Avas 
at one time bridged by the Continent of Atlantis, as Pliny 
declares ? 

At the end of six days the embassy returned with a most 
interesting but extremely disappointing report. They had 
found the capital city, not more than thirty-six miles from 
the coast, but instead of a place abounding with riches, thej^ 
discovered it to be a village composed of some fifty huts 
occupied by nearly one thousand naked or half-clad people. 
Instead of meeting a mighty monarch, called Kublai Khan, 
by Marco Polo, they were introduced to a tall Indian chief, 
whose throne was a block of wood very rudely carved, and 
who could provide no better feast than cassava bread, bana- 
nas, cocoanuts and water. The Jew turned his tongue to 
all his vocabularies, but without success. The guide, how- 
ever, was able to make himself understood and succeeded 
in explaining to the chief that the Spaniards were children 
descended from the sun, who were anxious to establish a 
friendship with his people. By this introduction the 
Cubans were made worshipers of their visitors, and after 
exchanging some parrots, cotton yarn, cassava and fruits 



ii6 COLUMBUS. 

for trinkets, several desired to accompany the embassy on 
their return to the ships, but only one man and his son 
were permitted this privilege. 

During the interview with the native chief the ambas- 
sadors observed what they regarded as a curious ceremony, 
in somewise connected with religious worship : — Numbers 
of the natives, young and old, carried about dried leaves 
which they rolled up in the form of a tubule, and applying 
fire to one end, inserted the other in the mouth, and after 
sucking it they expelled great quantities of smoke. These 
rolls the natives called tobago, whence is derived the word 
tobacco, which the leaves thus rolled together, forming a 
cigar, proved to be. Another yet more important discovery 
was made in the finding of Indian corn, from which the 
natives made a fairly good bread, but on account of their 
inability to separate the kernel from the shell, they preferred 
cassava. A transplantation of this most useful grain to 
Europe quickly followed, however, and has given such 
beneficent results as are only equaled by the cultivation of 
the potato. 

But though the Grand Khan of Columbus' imagination 
turned out to be only a naked chief, and the palatial city of 
the conjectured Quainsay a miserable village of loud-smell- 
ing huts, the reports of gold-abounding districts continued 
to lure the avaricious sailors. The natives now declared 
that somewhere towards the east was a river with banks 
of golden sand, to which people came every night with 
torches to gather stores of the precious deposit, which, how- 
ever, was so plentiful that the gold was only valuable be- 
cause of the vessels into which it might be easily wrought. 
The country where this wealth of auriferous sands was to 
be found the natives called Babcqnc, and thither the ex- 
pedition started with a covetous distraction, like that of a 
boy chasing a will-o'-the-wisp over a misty bog, and with 



THE NEW WORLD. 117 

the same disappointments. All the beauties of the island, 
all its wonderful productions of forest, grove and field, all 
its opportunities for colonization and the spread of Chris- 
tianity, alike failed to impress these adventurers, whose lust 
for gold subordinated every other ambition, and destroyed 
every commendable impulse. 

From the 28th of October until the 19th of November 
this heartless quest for gold continued, Columbus all the 
while dreaming, awake and asleep, of mountains of the pre- 
cious metal which he would presently find and therefrom 
load his vessels for an offering to the Spanish sovereigns. 
But when disappointment after disappointment finally began 
to corrode his hopes and dispel the illusions of his imagina- 
tion, he grew morose, and this sullenness of disposition 
also seized upon Alonzo Pinzon, who separated his vessel, 
the Pinta, from her companions, in order to make an 
independent search for the valleys, streams and moun- 
tains of gold which they had been unable to find while 
sailing together. But he was no more successful, and 
in rejoining the expedition, excused his act of desertion by 
declaring that he had been separated from the Santa Maria 
and Nina by storms that had violently driven the vessels 
after their departure from the anchorage before the river Rio 
de Mares. 

In his chagrin at the failures which attended his many 
efforts to find the gold which the islanders declared so often 
lay just a little way beyond, Columbus decided to seize 
several natives, choosing the most comely maidens and 
young men, and carry them back to Spain as specimens of 
the race occupying the new world of his discovery. In 
order to do this he had to violate all natural rights, but 
this gave small concern to Spanish conscience, and from 
this initial step the enslavement of these powerless, hospi- 
table and kindly natives directly followed. 



ii8 COLUMBUS. 

Columbus continued for several days along the coast of 
Cuba, naming the capes and bays that he passed, until the 
19th of November, when the Pinta deserted him during a 
serious storm, and he put into the estuary of St. Catharine 
for safety. Here he seems to have been recalled from his 
avaricious contemplation to a consideration of the beauties 
which were spread around him in a boundless prodigality 
of efflorescence — flower, fruit and forest ; a marvelous 
versatility of nature — rippling streams, leaping cascades, 
warbling birds of iris-wing, emerald lands, skies of azure, 
clouds barred with gold, soothingly sensuous air, and all 
the delights that a blessed clime can afford. In making re- 
port of the country about this harbor to Ferdinand and 
Isabella, Columbus says : " I often say to my people that, 
much as I endeavor to give a complete account of it to 
your Majesties, my tongue cannot express the whole truth, 
nor my pen describe it ; and I have been so overwhelmed 
at the sight of so much beauty that I have not known how 
to relate it." So proceeding, he dwells upon the trans- 
parency of the waters, how the most exquisite shells could 
be seen at five fathoms depth, lying like jewels of Neptune 
on the pearly sands that formed the ocean's floor, and then 
tells of gigantic forest trees, the trunk of one being formed 
into a canoe capable of carrying one hundred and fifty per- 
sons. 

After thus spending three days in a delightful examination 
of the coast about his anchorage, which he named Puerto 
Santo (Holy Port), Columbus again sailed eastward to the 
extreme limit of Cuba, and named the point Alpha-and- 
Omega. Instead of continuing around the island and direct- 
ing his course southwesterly, which would have brought 
him, in a sail of one hundred and thirty miles, to the shores 
of Yucatan and thus the continent, he doubled the eastern 
extremity of Cuba, but turned directly eastward again until 



THE NEW WORLD. T19 

another island burst upon his vision, which in his enraptured 
state he believed must be Babeque, or Bohio, the land of 
gold. But the natives whom he had seized exhibited the 
gravest alarms, for here they declared was the land of can- 
nibals, of dog-headed men, of cyclops and other monstrosi- 
ties and terrors, which would devour any one that had the 
temerity to land upon their shores. No alarms, however, 
were great enough to repress the enthusiasm of Columbus 
and his followers, whose thirst for gold rendered them in- 
sensible to all dangers, but on account of adverse winds a 
landing was not effected until two days after the coast was 
first sighted. 

The new land which rose before the Spaniards was the 
beautiful island now know^n as Hayti, or San Domingo, 
which they, on closer observation, perceived to be marvel- 
ously picturesque. The mountains in the central part rose 
to such a height as to be plainly visible from the sea, and 
from these fell away verdant foot-hills, which in turn faded 
into lovely valleys clothed with a luxuriant vegetation. 
Here and there Columbus detected columns of slowly rising 
smoke, indicative of an industrial community thriving off 
the abundant harvest yields of a highly-favored country. 

The two ships were put into a capacious harbor, large 
enough to accommodate a fleet of many hundred sail, to 
which he gave the name St. Nicholas, and by which des- 
ignation it is still known, and which in 1893 was acquired 
by the United States from the government of Hayti for a 
coaling station. 

Upon going on shore Columbus found the island well 
peopled, and several towns, some of considerable size, were 
visited, but the inhabitants took flight on the approach of 
the Spaniards. The country was well cultivated, and the 
roads connecting villages were in good condition, so that 
with orchards, gardens, fields of grain, houses of a fair con- 



I20 COLUMBUS. 

struction, there were abundant evidences attesting the 
great superiority of these natives over their Cuban neighbors. 
But they were surprisingly timid, notwithstanding their 
reputation for fierceness, and being unable for this reason to 
open intercourse with them, Columbus sent a company to 
pursue and bring to him some of the people, who had 
abandoned their villages and taken refuge among the 
mountains. Diligent search for these refugees at length 
resulted in the capture of one woman, who was entirely 
naked, but wore a gold pendant in her nose. The Admiral 
received his prisoner with signs of regard, and after provid- 
ing her with clothes, gave her presents of hawk's bells and 
other gewgaws, which soon won her thankful admiration 
and made her condition such a pleasant one that she pro- 
fessed no desire to return to her people. But Columbus 
placed her in charge of nine Spaniards and one Cuban in- 
terpreter, who conducted her to the village where she lived, 
which was some fifteen miles in the interior, with the view 
of using her to open negotiations with the natives. The 
town contained about one thousand huts and probably six 
or seven thousand people, but even this large population 
was terrified by the sight of white men, and all decamped 
with precipitation towards the hills. After great patience 
and many efforts, the woman and the interpreter induced 
some of the boldest to return, who, being conducted to the 
presence of the Spaniards, exhibited every sign of worship- 
ful awe. The woman's husband was among the first to ap- 
proach, through her persuasions, and it was amusing to see 
his demonstrations of amazement at the clothes and orna- 
ments with which his proud wife was invested. 

The confidence of the Indians was at length obtained, 
and they conducted their visitors in great state to the best 
houses of the town, where a splendid banquet, of cassava 
bread, fish, bananas and other native products was provided. 



THE NEW WORLD. 121 

After this introductory ceremony the freest intercourse 
prevailed. Columbus observes that the islanders now dis- 
missed their fears and began to exhibit their generous in- 
stincts by presenting the Spaniards with everything they 
thought might be desired by their visitors. They appeared 
to have no knowledge of values, for their gifts were made 
as if the act of giving afforded great pleasure. Their man- 
ner of life was innocent in the highest degree, as during the 
whole time the Spaniards spent among the natives, not a 
single act of violence or treachery was observed. It was 
also evident that there was a confraternity of interest 
among them, since each was willing to share with his neigh- 
bor whatever he had, exacting no equivalent, and in all 
respects exhibiting, by word and deed, a common brother- 
hood not found to exist among so-called Christian people. 
Among them, also, the sacredness of the marriage relation 
was observed, and monogamy prevailed, except that chiefs 
were permitted to take a plurality of wives, the limit being 
twenty. There being no division of property, or separation 
of interests, the harmony of their relations was never broken, 
and no disturbances of any character afflicted these inno- 
cent and peace-loving natives, save occasional invasions 
of other islanders, which was followed by temporary dis- 
quietude. 

But while Columbus found Hayti, or Hispaniola, to be a 
most fertile island, and inhabited by a prosperous and con- 
tented people with whom he had inaugurated a pleasant 
intercourse, he was disappointed again in his expectations 
of finding the mountains and valleys of gold, towards which 
his heart and hopes continually inclined ; so on December 
14th, he departed to renew the search for the golden king- 
dom of Babeque. He presently discovered another island 
to which he gave the name of Tortugas, or Turtle Island, 
and coasted it until he determined that its size was incon- 



122 COLUMBUS. 

siderable, though he observed that the island was well 
watered by rivers and lakes, and that it supported a lux- 
urious vegetation. 

After a cruise of three days, without important results, 
Columbus returned to the coast of Hispaniola (little Spain), 
and put into a pleasant harbor which he named Puerto de 
Paz, with the purpose to renew his explorations of the in- 
terior. The report of his return was quickly noised abroad 
through the island, and on the i8th, one the caciques, or 
chiefs of the natives, came in state, borne as he was by four 
men in a wicker-work basket or Avhat might be called a 
palanquin, and accompanied by his ministers, to pay his 
respects to the Spaniards. Proceeding on board the Safita 
Jllaria, as Columbus was at dinner, the cacique was con- 
ducted to the salon, where he bowed most courteously to 
the Admiral, and accepted an invitation to dine, though he 
ate very little. After the meal was ended, as an exhibition 
of his amity and regard, the cacique presented Columbus 
with a belt wrought of cocoanut fiber in a most artistic man- 
ner, and ornamented with thin plates of gold ; in return for 
which the delighted Admiral gave his imperial guest a coun- 
terpane of many colors, a collar of amber beads, a pair of 
red buskins, and a glass flask filled with orange-flower 
water, the fragrance of which was very pleasant. After 
this exchange of presents, the cacique took his leave, but 
his brother, perceiving the profit that had attended the 
visit, came on board and so far forgot his dignity as to beg 
for similar mementos of the white man's generosity, nor did 
his boldness go wholly unrewarded. 

While lying in Puerto de Paz, Columbus was entertained 
by the natives with extravagant stories of incredible wealth, 
one of whom declared that he knew an island not far distant 
where all the mountains were of gold, and the shores were 
of the same precious metal. But such tales no longer had 



THE NEW WORLD. 123 

the effect they once produced upon Columbus, though he 
did not yet abandon hope that he would yet arrive upon 
some island where gold so abounded as to enable him to 
load his vessels with it, and enrich him beyond the dreams 
of kings. 

On the 20th of December, the anchors were raised and on 
the same day the harbor of St. Thomas was found and 
named, where upon landing before a large village, the capi- 
tal of the island, the natives flocked about the Spaniards in 
greater numbers than before. So liberal were the island- 
ers that they gave more than their white visitors were 
able to receive, which caused Columbus to restrain their 
prodigality by issuing an order forbidding any of his men 
accepting anything unless they bestowed something in re- 
turn. At this harbor, where Columbus remained several 
days, spending much of his time on shore, he was received 
by an embassy from the monarch of the island, the Grand 
Cacique Guacanagari, who dispatched a messenger bearing 
as a present to the Admiral a delicately wrought belt, to 
which were suspended colored bits of bone, and a face dex- 
trously carved in wood, with the eyes, nose and tongue of 
beaten gold, accompanied by a pressing invitation from the 
chief to visit his palace. 

Not being willing to leave the ships, as the weather ap- 
peared threatening, Columbus sent his royal notary, and six 
men bearing many presents, to accept the hospitalities of 
Guacanagari and to convey to him assurances of regard and 
an intention to visit him as soon as the weather became fair. 
The Spanish embassy was received with great ceremony, 
and given every privilege to enjoy whatever the town or its 
people afforded, and upon being conducted to the presence 
of the great chief they were made recipients of his most 
bounteous favors. Receiving from the hands of the Span- 
iards the presents which Columbus had forwarded, he 



124 COLUMBUS. 

invited them to remain over night in the town, but this 
they had to decHne in pursuance of orders requiring them 
to return on the same day ; whereupon the chief delivered 
to them, as presents for the Admiral, several pieces of gold 
and two large parrots that had been taught to utter several 
words of the native tongue, which were curiosities that 
Columbus highly prized. 

On their return to the ships the Spaniards were accom- 
panied by more than a thousand natives, who followed 
after them in canoes with liberal gifts of fruit, curious na- 
tive handiwork, and a few pieces of gold, which they gave 
with freedom. Seeing that the latter was held in greatest 
estimation, several of the natives declared, as an induce- 
ment to prolong the stay of their visitors, that in a district 
called Cibao, somewhere in the interior, there abounded 
great treasures of gold and precious stones, to which place 
they would gladly pilot the Spaniards. 

This report acted as fresh fuel to the flame of his 
avarice, and visions of Quainsay, the rich kingdom of Kubla 
Khan, and possessions of the wealth which had been the 
basis of his ambition, again rose in luring grandeur before 
the longing eyes of Columbus, and he became filled with 
desire to gain that glittering region. 

But the tropical winter was at hand and tempestuous 
weather became an interposing barrier to his aspirations. 
On Christmas eve, when the anchors Avere weighed to pro- 
ceed on a voyage around the island to a point nearer Cibao, 
the sky was serene, and Avith a feeling of security Columbus 
retired to sleep, leaving his subordinate officers in charge 
of the Santa Maria. It appears that the helmsman soon 
followed the example of the Admiral and went to sleep, 
leaving an inexperienced cabin-boy at the rudder, while the 
other officers, lulled into a false security by the calmness 
of the sea, fell likewise into drowsy unconcern. The vcs- 



THE NEW WORLD. 125 

sel directly entered a current that swept rapidly through 
channels about the islands, by which she was carried with 
full sail upon a sand-bar where she stuck fast and heeled 
before the wind. The shock of grounding awakened 
Columbus and also his derelict officers, who now rushed 
upon the deck to behold the result of their neglect and lend 
assistance in repairing the misfortune for which they were 
accountable. The roar of breakers lent an aspect of fury to 
the darkness of night, and the sailors became distracted 
with fear and superstition. In this condition Columbus 
undertook to save his vessel by ordering a company of his 
men to take a boat and carry an anchor out astern, in order 
to warp the ship from her perilous position. The men 
seemed prompt to obey, but the moment they launched 
the boat they shoved off without the anchor and made 
with all speed for the Nina, w^hich was nearly a league 
distant. Pinzon, the master, discovering how they had 
deserted, refused to receive them on board and ordered 
them back to their duty ; but so slowly did they comply 
that a boat from the Nina, with a relief crew, reached the 
stranded vessel in advance of the returning deserters. 
Meanwhile, the breakers had thrown the Santa Maria still 
farther upon the sand, Avhere she lay careening and beating 
with great force. Columbus ordered the masts to be cut 
away, hoping thus to relieve her, but his efforts were all in 
vain. The seams now opened, admitting the water, but the 
tide presently receded, leaving her fast, yet safe for the 
time from the destructive force of the breakers. Had the 
sea been tempestuous all must have been drowned, but 
good fortune so far attended them that all escaped to the 
Nina, and in the morning Columbus sent two of his men, 
Diego de Arana and Pedro Guttierrez, to the great chief 
Guacanagari to acquaint him with their disaster. This 
sad news moved the compassionate cacique to tears, but he 



126 COLUMBUS. 

did not stop to ponder over the misfortune. He imme- 
diately ordered great numbers of his people to go in canoes 
to the aid of Columbus, and to implicitly obey his orders in 
securing the cargo and safety of the ship. At the same 
time he dispatched a messenger to the Admiral with ex- 
pressions of his sincere regret and to offer him " the whole 
of his possessions," 

So efificient were the services of the natives, that in a 
short while all the goods were taken out of the ship and 
carried to a secure place on the shore, where a guard was 
placed over them by the chief, lest some of his people 
might be tempted to appropriate some articles for which 
their fancy longed. No civilized magistrate could have 
done more to assist and protect the interests of unfortunate 
friends than did this honest, generous-minded cacique. Nor 
was the virtue of his actions limited to himself, but ex- 
tended to all the natives, who appeared to be innocent of 
any thought of profit from the disaster. "The sympathies 
of the people for Columbus in his loss, and the reception he 
received from the Indian sovereign, mitigated the bitter- 
ness of the accident. In no part of the civilized world 
would he have received warmer or more cordial hospi- 
tality." 

But the loss was great enough. The Pinta was gone ; 
and now the Admiral's flag-ship, with open seams, lay pros- 
trate on the perilous sands, quaking with each impact of 
the sea ; shivering like a wounded creature at every blow 
of the hand that smote it down. O thou Santa Maria, 
thou famous remembrancer of the centuries I The names 
of none of those that sailed in search of the Golden Fleece are 
so well preserved among the eternities of history as is thine. 
No vessel of Rome, of Greece, of Carthage, of Egypt, that 
carried conquering Caesar, triumphant Alexander, valiant 
Hannibal, or beauteous Cleopatra, shall be so well known 



THE NEW WORLD. 127 

to coming ages as thou art. No ship of the Spanish Ar- 
mada, or of Lord Howard, who swept it from the sea — no 
looming monster, no Great Eastern or frowning ironclad 
of modern navies, shall be held like thee in perpetual remem- 
brance by all the sons of men. For none ever bore such a 
hero on such a mission, that has glorified all nations by 
giving the greatest of all countries to the world. 

Touched by the generous treatment which he received at 
the hands of Guacanagari and his subjects, Columbus pays 
them this beautiful tribute : " They are a loving, uncove- 
tous people ; so docile in all things that I swear to your 
majesties there is not in the world a better race or a more 
delightful country. They love their neighbors as them- 
selves ; and their talk is ever sweet and gentle, accom- 
panied with smiles ; and though they be naked, yet their 
manners are decorous and praiseworthy." 

It may be with soberness asked : Was it better, in the 
eyes of God, to convert these virtuous people from the 
happy innocence of their primitive condition, to the civili- 
zation of the Spaniards, under which they became the most 
degraded specimens of the West India race, or to have left 
them to enjoy the blessings of loving confidence, conten- 
tment, honesty and universal brotherhood which charac- 
terized them at the time of Columbus' coming ? In truth, 
it does appear that these simple people had found Christ 
before they heard His name, or saw the cross that the civil- 
ized Spaniards erected to teach them how He died. 

To arouse him from the despondency of his situation, the 
cacique had the rescued goods carried into three buildings 
prepared for the purpose, and then gave Columbus an 
urgent invitation to accept the hospitalities of his capital. 
Since the voyage could not be continued until the Santa 
Maria was repaired and floated, or her final loss determined, 
the Admiral availed himself of the courtesies so cordially 



128 COLUMBUS. 

extended and went on shore, where he was magnificently 
received. A banquet was then set by the native king, at 
which Columbus and several of his officers were reealed 
with every delicacy that the island afforded. At the meal 
the cacique conducted himself with a dignity and decorum 
scarcely surpassed by the most civilized potentates, and as 
if he had long been accustomed to entertaining distinguished 
representatives from the first powers of the world. 

In return for the kindnesses received, Columbus invited 
Guacanagari and his ministers to dine with him on board 
the Nina, which gave the cacique intense delight, and was 
followed by an interchange of courtesies mutually profitable 
and pleasurable. A familiarity thus became established, 
and Columbus had opportunity of displaying before the 
natives some of the arts and instruments of power of Cas- 
tilian civilization. The Spanish arms were exhibited and 
the sailors were put through evolutions to show their mili- 
tary precision and skill in the handling of arbalets, Moorish 
hand-bows, arquebuses, and the destruction that might be 
produced by their artillery of falconets. Having demon- 
strated the effectiveness of Spanish weapons, Columbus 
explained to the chief how he might make his island proof 
against the invasion of Caribs, who were accustomed to 
make predatory incursions into Hispaniola for purposes of 
spoliation. The Caribs of the Bahamas and of South 
America were indeed terrors to all the other West Indies 
islanders, who suffered constantly from their depredations, 
and were not infrequently enslaved by them ; so that the 
suggestions of Columbus M'ere hailed with great delight by 
Guacanagari, and his request for permission to erect a fort 
on the island was accordingly granted with gladness. On 
the other hand, Columbus utilized this privilege as a proof 
of priority of occupation against all claims which might be 
thereafter made by other nations sending expeditions into 



EtcUiug by Russell. 



CAPTURE OF THE EMPRESS OF ARMINIUS. 



The first discovery of North America was undoubtedly made by Norse- 
men, notwithstanding the vagueness of creditable history, as well as of 
legend, upon this very important subject. The origin of the Norsemen, or 
" Northmen," as the word signifies, is therefore a matter of particular 
interest to Americans. Upon the death of Augustus, B. C 14, the army 
proclaimed Germanicus, one of the greatest of Roman generals, Caesar, but 
he refused the imperial crown through loyalty to the legitimate successor. 
A sedition was threatened by the dissatisfied soldiers, to abate which 
Germanicus led his powerful army across the Rhine and descended with 
great impetuosity upon the Germans. He beat them in every engagement, 
and delivering a crushing defeat upon Arminius, captured his Empress and 
the members of the imperial household. The etching printed on the 
opposite page represents this great historical incident. The Germans 
fled before their Roman conquerors to the hyperborean countries, Denmark, 
Norway and Sweden, where they found the climate too rigorous for the 
profitable pursuit of agriculture and were accordingly driven to the neces- 
sity of deriving their support from the sea. Along the coast their settle- 
ments were made and in the course of a few years they developed into a 
sea-faring people. War being an almost universal profession in the early 
centuries, the tribes of Northmen, as they found themselves growing 
stronger, made descents upon the neighboring countries of Scotia and 
England, and ultimately became such terrible freebooters that they were 
the very scourge oi the sea. Their boats were everywhere ; no dangers 
deterred them, and conquest of known lands was followed by quests for 
new ones, in which pursuit they discovered and settled Iceland, and 
extended their voyages to the western continent as early as the year 9S5. 



THE NEW WORLD. 1-9 

these waters, for it was his intent to recommend the island 
as possessing special advantages for successful coloniza- 
tion. 

At the conclusion of the very impressive exhibition made 
by the Spaniards, the cacique provided an entertainment 
for his guests, which, though devoid of military aspect, was 
none the less interesting. The most athletic natives 
appeared and strove for honors in a tournament of wrest- 
ling, jumping, dancing, and in several unique games peculiar 
to the islanders, in every way acquitting themselves in the 
most creditable manner. When the games were finished, 
Guacanagari presented Columbus with a necklace of gold 
pellets, deftly united, and a crown of the same material. 
He also gave his distinguished guest a small wooden image, 
supposed to possess some potent influence, the eyes, ears 
and tongue of which were made of gold hammered into thin 
sheets, and received in return a handsome mirror, an ewer, 
wash-pitcher, a shirt and pair of gloves. 

The sailors, while not sharing in the gifts bestowed by 
the chief, profited equally well by exchanging with the 
natives hawk's bells, glass trinkets and other gewgaws, for 
pieces of gold, cotton and provisions. To this advantage- 
ous traffic was the added pleasure of the reverential regard 
in which the Indians held their guests, esteeming them, as 
they did, as beings so superior by birth that their advent 
must have been from the sky. 

There was nothing for the sailors now to do but wander 
at will about the island and enjoy its many blessings ; 
where pleasing and restful conditions abounded ; where 
ambition was satiated by the prodigality of nature, the sen- 
suousness of air, the mellifluence of flowering sweets and 
delicious fruitage ; where the smile of peace, the laugh of 
content, the hand of plenty, diffused universal joy and made 
life a dream of pleasure. 
9 



130 COLUMBUS. 

Columbus was himself so impressed by the beauty and 
advantage of these surroundings that he decided to effect 
at once a colonization of the island, and to this end he called 
for volunteers to remain as a nucleus until he could return 
to Spain and bring additional force. Much to his gratifica- 
tion, a considerable number indicated their willingness to 
accept the conditions offered. They were the more ready 
to embrace this opportunity to spend their lives in elegant 
ease, because of peculiar circumstances : the perils of a 
return voyage were not without efTect, especially since only 
one vessel, the Niila, remained, and she the smallest and 
frailest of the three ; but there was the more influential 
condition of intimacy with had been established between 
many of the sailors and the maidens of the islands. We 
may hope that a few at least of the connections thus formed 
were of the heart, and that a consecration of these informal 
marriages was found in the ennobling emotions and senti- 
ments that inspired them, without which the most sacred 
of human bonds is profaned. 

Forty-two men having signified their consent to remain 
on the island as colonists, Columbus set about the imme- 
diate construction of a fort, in the building of which the 
timbers of the stranded Satiia Maria were used for a block- 
house and tower and her guns were recovered and mounted 
to complete the equipment. The fort thus established, as 
well as the harbor which it defended, was named in honor 
of The Nativity, La Natividad, and the command was given 
to Diego de Arana, who was also appointed governor. 
Among the colonists were several artisans, including a car- 
penter, cooper, tailor, gunsmith, and also a physician, and the 
comfort and necessities of the whole were carefully provided 
for by leaving a quantity of wine, provisions, clothing and 
merchandise for barter, all of which were stored in a natural 
cave of considerable dimensions over which the fort was 



THE NEW WORLD. 131 

built. BosicJcs these there was a liberal supply of small 
arms, which the colonists were cautioned to carry against 
surprise from invaders, and there was also a quantity of seed 
to sow in the land. 

Having thus secured the safety of the colonists, Colum- 
bus delivered a touching address, in which he sought to 
impress them with the responsibilities they were about to 
assume as the first white settlers in the new world, and the 
deep sense of thankfulness which they should feel towards 
God for the watchful care and tender mercies He had 
shown them. He exhorted them to be diligent in the prop- 
agation of the Christian religion among the poor natives 
who had so hospitably received them, and to yield loyal 
obedience to the officers appointed over them. He coun- 
seled them particularly, in their intercourse with the natives, 
to observe the rights of all, to practice a pious continence 
in regard to women, to keep inviolate the bond of brother- 
hood in which their safety lay, and to remain within the juris- 
diction of the cacique, to whose favors they owed so much 
and who would extend to them his protection. 

On the 2d of January, 1493, Columbus gave a banquet to 
Guacanagari and took this last occasion of manifesting to 
him his appreciation of the many kindnesses which had 
been conferred upon him and his men since landing on the 
island. He accordingly gave the cacique a scarlet mantle, 
a pair of buskins, a silver ring and a necklace of beads. 
After bestowing these gifts he embraced the chief with such 
tenderness that tears came to the eyes of both, and amid 
such emotions the two parted. 

A strong shore wind detained the Nina until the morning 
of January 4, when the final partings occurred, and the brave 
little ship lifted her sails and started to traverse the wide 
sea that separated her passengers from the shores of Spain. 
Many of these were gladdened with thoughts of home and 



132 COLUMBUS. 

waiting friends, and there were others — natives of Hispan- 
iola — who had consented to brave the dangers of the ocean 
world for a sight of that country whence the Spaniards came, 
and which they believed must be some celestial clime border- 
ing the region of the sun. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Grand even to the fulfillment of his first ambition was 
the discovery that would set his name on the very spire of 
Fame's temple, yet this supreme accomplishment could not 
totally repress the sense of present danger. How, then, can 
we estimate the misgivings, the hopes, the passions which 
must have agitated Columbus when the emerald banks of 
Hayti faded from his view, and a vast expanse of water 
spread away, suggestive of storm and peril that lay between 
him and the shores of Spain ? There was elation for him, 
however, in the flattering belief that the colony planted in 
the New World would prove a nucleus around which would 
gather not only a glorious prestige, but from which would 
spread a great wave of Christianity and commerce to per- 
petuate his fame ; and there was joy in the anticipation of 
vast accumulation of gold, which he believed the colonists 
would surely find on the island in quantities to load many 
ships. In this enrichment of his sovereigns he was to 
receive an eighth, which would enable him to accomplish 
his primal ambition. Lifted into ecstasy by his ever active 
imagination, while contemplating the golden sands and 
mountains of Cabique, a glorious vision filled his soul. The 
coffers of Spain were bursting with stores of gold, which 
inspired Christendom with new resolution to attempt a 
recovery of the Holy Land. What the Crusaders through 
two centuries had been unable to accomplish should now 
be done under the gilded banners of Castile and Aragon. 
See the marshaling of a numberless host, whose armors 



134 COLUMBUS. 

dazzle from afar like dew-drops in the grass ; whose framing 
falchions cleave the sun and flash its luster back in gleams 
scintillant. In God's name, under the legend of the cross, 
he sees the marching army, hears the inspiring blare of 
trumpet, and sights the standards of Spain, beside which 
waves in glory his own banner, emblazoned with devices that 
proclaim the splendor of his achievements : five anchors on 
a field of azure, map of the sea, thrice turreted, crenelated 
tower, and rampant lion. Oh, what a brilliant dream ! 
Alas, there is no beauty like that of dying day, when the 
palaces of cloud-land are set aflame with rays of a blood-red 
sun. There is no pall so great as when the fires die out 
and leave banks of blackened clouds rolling on the bosom of 
threatening night. So, from his dream of chivalry — of glory 
full attained — he awoke at last to find the vision faded, and 
that all his hopes were dead. 

If he was transported by the anticipation of gains which 
he believed must come from his discoveries, he was dejected 
by harassments that sprang from fear, doubts and dangers. 
The one thorn of his misgivings was the contemplation of 
the results of Alonzo Pinzon's desertion. Twice had reports 
been brought to him while on Hispaniola that the Pinta 
had been sighted hovering near that land. As often did he 
send a boat in anxious search of the missing vessel, but all 
efforts to find her had been vain. Two months had now 
elapsed since the separation, and there was justification for 
the alarm that Columbus felt. The Pinta may have been 
lost on some dangerous reef ; the crew may have perished 
or been cast upon some desolate shore. But there was yet 
a graver fear. Pinzon had furnished a vessel from his own 
means ; he was a skillful navigator, and withal an ambitious 
man. Chafing under subordination to a foreigner, he may 
have had a cunning purpose in abandoning the expedition. 
His ship was the fastest sailer and the most seaworthy; 



THE NEW WORLD. i35 

mi«'ht he not have designed a scheme to rob Columbus of 
the honors of discovery and appropriate them to himself ; 
may he not have sailed away for Spain bearing the first news 
of a world beyond the sea, and conceived some specious 
story to magnify his deeds and disparage the Admiral, whose 
reputation a thousand enemies had been vainly trying to 
destroy? 

But in the midst of these gloomy reflections Columbus 
was suddenly aroused by a glad cry set up at once by many 
sailors : " A ship ! A ship ! " Looking towards the north, 
there, sure enough, he saw the white sails of a vessel head- 
ing towards the shore of Hayti, and a few moments later 
discovered to him that the ship was none other than the 
Pinta, so long missing. Turning about, Columbus pointed 
the Nifia towards a small bay, in which both vessels soon 
cast their anchors, and an eager scramble quickly followed, 
to exchange welcomes and congratulations. Pinzon paid 
his respects to Columbus as soon as he could reach the 
Nifia and excused his desertion by a story such as might 
have been anticipated, though manifestly lacking the prime 
element of veracity. He claimed that violent weather on 
November 20th had driven him far out of his course, de- 
spite all his efforts, and losing sight of the other ships he had 
spent the time, up to this meeting, in a vain attempt to 
join them. For prudential seasons Columbus suppressed 
his feelings and appeared to hear with satisfaction the ex- 
planations and apologies of his subordinate, whose desertion 
he knew was inspired by selfishness and avarice, as already 
explained. Besides this, it was presently learned that Pin- 
zon had put in at one of the bays of San Domingo, where 
he had opened a traffic with the natives, from whom he had 
obtained a considerable quantity of gold, the half of which 
he gave his crew as a bribe for their silence. 

But even with this evidence of his perfidy, Columbus 



136 COLUMBUS. 

wisely chose to receive Pinzon with appearances of gratifi- 
cation and pardon, since he was a man of wealth and influ- 
ence in Palos, to whom a majority of the sailors, being his 
countrymei}, were devotedly attached and would not have 
brooked a deprivation of his command or his treatment as a 
mutineer. 

During a stay of three days in the bay where the ships 
met, preparations were completed for a return trip to Spain, 
but just before departure, many glittering particles of mica 
were discovered in the mouth of the river Yaqui, near by 
which were believed to be gold, and a considerable collection 
of the worthless metal was made and carried on board the 
vessels for transportation to Spain. In honor of the sup- 
posed fabulous find, Columbus named the river Rio del Oro. 

On the 9th of January, departure was made from the 
anchorage where the vessels had met, but owing to contrary 
winds on the following day, the ships put into a harbor where 
Martin Alonzo Pinzon had lain some time before trafficking 
with the natives. Here it was learned that Pinzon had 
seized six islanders, among the number being two beautiful 
girls, whom he designed to carry back to Spain and sell as 
slaves. But whether prompted by jealousy or humanity, 
Columbus ordered them released and conciliated the out- 
raged natives by liberal donations of hawk's bells, beads, 
mirrors, and cloths. 

Proceeding again from the place of this last detention, 
the ships rounded a promontory and on the second day 
came to land where a new and more warlike tribe of abo- 
rigines was discovered, which Las Casas describes as wear- 
ing long hair and decorating their bodies with paint and 
feathers. They were well armed with war clubs, swords of 
hardened palm-wood, and bows and arrows of formidable 
size, so that in many respects they resembled the North 
American Indians. 



THE NEW WORLD. 137 

Efforts to establish intercourse with these fierce islanders 
were not at first successful, and some curious beliefs directly 
obtained among the Spaniards respecting their cannibal 
propensities. At length, however, a party of sailors suc- 
ceeded in bartering several trinkets for a few specimens of 
the native weapons, but when they attempted to return with 
their prizes the sailors were fiercely attacked in an effort 
made by the islanders to recover the articles which they had 
exchanged. In defending themselves the Spaniards wounded 
two of the natives, who retired sullenly, but with an exhibi- 
tion of surprise rather than of fear. This rupture in what, for 
a while, bid fair for the establishment of amicable relations, 
was repaired on the following day by peaceful overtures 
made by Columbus, who, distributing a quantity of presents 
among the islanders, at length induced the cacique of these 
people to visit him on board the Niiia where he was most 
generously entertained, and requited this kind treatment by 
sending to the ships a large supply of fruits and vegetables. 

Spreading his sails again, Columbus went in quest of the 
country of the Caribs and Amazons, and being variously 
directed by all the natives with whom he came in contact, 
his course was in as many directions, until the sailors became 
bitter in their objections to further explorations which pro- 
longed their absence from home without bringing any sub- 
stantial benefits. In deference to their wishes, therefore, 
Columbus turned the prow of his vessel eastward for the 
shores of Spain. 

Up to this time, for a period of six months, the weather 
had been propitious, nor did it yet become heavy, but the 
vessels now encountered trade winds blowing from the east, 
which compelled them to tack and beat about until the 
sailors became confused as to the point of their course. It 
was also directly discovered that the Pinta, was falling be- 
hind by reason of the neglect of her commander to repair 



138 COLUMBUS. 

her foremast, which had been broken during his independent 
cruise about Hayti. This caused Cokimbus great delay, as 
he had to proceed under half sail in order to keep company 
with the laboring consort. At the slow pace the vessels 
were now making the sailors were able to amuse themselves 
by leaping overboard, swimming around the ships, and in 
taking great numbers of fish, which constantly played about 
the caravels in immense shoals. A large shark was also 
captured, which lent excitement to the other pleasures of the 
sailors, who fared sumptuously on fresh fish, and the flesh 
of the shark, which they declared was most palatable. 

The last days of January slipped by with no more im- 
portant incidents, and in the doubtfulness of their course 
and position, Columbus and his officers began to debate as 
to what part of the coast of Europe they were likely to 
strike, a subject rendered particularly confusing to the sailing 
officers by reason of the false reckonings made by him on his 
outward voyage. But every prospect continued auspicious, 
with no dissatisfaction save in the slowness at which the 
vessels were moving, until the afternoon of Febuary 12th, 
when a howling wind, swelling sea, and lowering clouds be- 
came nature's precursor of an approaching storm. 

Before night set in a roaring tempest came swooping out 
of the northeast and struck the little vessels with a fury that 
threatened their destruction ; but Columbus had prepared 
them for the battle by taking in all sail, thus leaving them 
to run before the blast with bare poles. 

The first onslaught of the wind was followed by a lull, 
in which the storm gathered up all its reserved forces and 
then repeated the charge with greatly increased rage, heel- 
ing the ships and hurling mad billows in tumultuous im- 
petuosity against their frail sides. As darkness curtained 
the lashing waves the roar of the bounding sea was drowned 
by a terrific bombardment from heaven's artillery, and con- 



THE NEW WORLD. 139 

tinuous flashes of lightning sent terror to the souls of the 
poor encompassed ones. The anger of nature seemed turned 
against the ships that were bearing home with them report 
of a new world beyond the evening gates of the sun, as if 
jealous of a discovery destined to turn the chivalry of Europe 
from contemplating a rescue of the Holy Land, to the re- 
clamation of another continent, where commerce and Chris- 
tianity would march together to higher attainments than 
they had ever before reached. Down in the cavernous 
depths, or on the spray-capped crest of the billows, the cry 
of despair was mingled with the voice of prayer, but there 
came no other answer than wild dash of surge, deafening peal 
of thunder, or blinding flashes riving the Cimmerian vault of 
rolling clouds where all the fiends of fury appeared to be 
holding carnival. 

And thus the dreadful night wore away in tumultuary 
distress, and morning broke with no pity for the horrified 
sailors. In the riot of wind and wave the two vessels were 
separated, and the crews of each now contemplated the 
destruction of the other. When light of day came stealing 
down the east it was only to expose a sea lashing in 
impetuous anger, and a sky black and ominous of death, 
with never a rift anywhere in the dreadfulness of an awful 
surrounding. The little ship, poorly equipped and sorely out 
of repair, had not borne these buffetings without serious 
impairment, and before she had weathered this first night 
of storm her seams began to open, thus multiplying the 
chances of her foundering and carrying all on board into 
graves where winding-sheets are not necessary to corses nor 
the service of sexton essential in the obsequies. 

All prayer being unavailing, Columbus, still strong in his 
religious faith, had recourse to penance, feeling that his own 
and the sins of those who composed his crew must have 
brought upon them God's wrath in the form of storm 



140 COLUMBUS. 

visitatioa. First repeating his vow's before the ima^e of 
the Holy Virgin, he prepared lots by seleciing dried beans 
equal to the aumber of those on board, upon one of vhich 
a cross was made ; then exacting an agreement that he who 
should draw the marked bean would, if his life were spared, 
make a pilgrimage to the shrine of the Virgin of Guadaloupe 
and bear thither a wax taper of ftve pounds" weight, placed 
the beans in a cap and the lottery began. Each one was to 
draw in the order of his rank, and it happened that Columbus, 
being first, drew the marked bean. A second vow was then 
takoi, that he upon whoa: the lot should next fall would 
make a holy pilgrimage to the Chapel of Our Lady oi 
Loretto. At this second dra-iring the obligation fell on 
Pedro de Villa, who. being too poor to bear the expenses 
of such a journey. Columbus generously offered to discharge 
them himself. A third time lots were dra\ra. he upon whom 
the sign should fall vowing to repair to the Church of Santa 
Clara, at Moguer. where he was to participate in High Massw 
and spend the entire night in prayer before the alcar. This 
lot also devol%"ed upon Columbus by his drawing the marked 
bean. But the obligations thus self-imposed were no: yet 
cvMnpleted. for the storm continuing, without any :agns of 
abatement, the entire crew registered a vow that if all were 
spared, they would, at the erst place of landing, proceed 
in procession, with no other garment upon their bodies than 
a shirt, to the nearest shrine, and there ofier up thanks- 
£i\-in^s for their deliverance. We cannot frame a reasonable 
excuse for such a vow. be>*ond the supposition that it 
involved mortification, and was imposed as a sign of extreme 
hurailit)- : but whatever the reason, certainly the ferfings of 
those whom the half-naked sailors might meet at the shrine 
were not consid«Ted. and without irreverence we may pause 
to wonder if such a display would have be^i pieasii^ to 
the sight of the Blessed Virgin. 



NEW \V??.ir 141 



saOorsnovthor: j ^re^sed 

r lus destroc: 
" :-f rt mear 5 - 

5 oather : 



was to cxecnte 11 
conqiosca a ^r : - 

^lidi he had r 
inavaxedcic: 
mittcd it to s, 
kopii^ Aat fi : : 

shove. To ..:i_-: :. - :^ . . _: .: 

rec o voy firom the waTes» he directed it to the C . 
Castile, and appended a pr: ~ ■---- "~ '"gation c -- - 
dncats (equal to as man J c erfcssr 

one who ^loald restore it -^ 
Bat not j^ cxmtent w : 
prorided, Cohunbos made :■. 

fikewise indoscd in a barrd, bat :r.i:eii :: sting it 

«firectly to die sea, fastened it sec- : ' h's 

ship, so that in case of wreck it m .: :' f 

bosom oi. the sea ontil found by sc :~ ~ 
futuic. 



142 COLUMBUS. 

What a secret for the ocean to so long possess; what a 
precious thing for historians to acquire. To this day has 
hope continued in its ultimate recovery, and since its precious- 
ness cannot be computed, enthusiasts still picture the results 
of its restoration from the sea. To find this parchment now 
would be like the recovery of a letter written by Richard 
the Lion Heart in the German prison ; or the restoration of 
the original manuscripts of the Pandects of Justinian ; or 
the notes of Demosthenes for his great oration on the 
crown ; or the Hebrew Ark of the Covenant. 

So valuable would be such a possession that reports of the 
finding of the cask have been published more than once to 
excite the credulous and to amuse the wise. As late as 
1852, directly after that unveracious but universal historian 
— the newspaper correspondent — had been born into the 
world, one of that inventive craft, Avhosc business it is to 
create what may not be discovered, contributed to an 
English paper an elaborate story describing the details 
of the recovery of the barrel by the captain of a Boston 
ship named the Chieftain, who, it was declared, found it 
embedded deeply in the sand on the coast of Africa. For a 
while the fiction was accepted as true, and even Lamartine 
adopted it as a verity, only to repudiate it later, however, 
when the hoax was exploded. 

The prayers, vows and precautions which so long seemed 
unavailing were followed by relief towards evening of the 
third day, when, with the declining sun, there appeared 
promising streaks of light cleaving retiring clouds, and 
when night came on the merry stars were revealed as if 
laughing with joy for the danger passed. But though the 
sky was now serene, deep heavings of the sea continued, 
rendering progress slow and painful, while anxiety for the 
safety of the Pinta still deeply concerned Columbus, whose 
dreadful anticipations were reflected by all of his crew. 



THE NEW WORLD. 143 

On the morning following the subsidence of the storm, 
February 15th, Rui Garcia perceived by the faint light of 
breaking day the dark outline of an island towards the 
northeast, and all on board the Nina were quickly apprised 
of the discovery. Many different opinions were hazarded 
as to the land thus seen, but the claim of Columbus, that it 
was one of the Azores, was presently confirmed by a close 
approach to shore, when the characteristic peaks of Santa 
Maria became unmistakable. But the sea was still so tur- 
bulent that anchorage could not be attempted, and for two 
days the vessel beat about, but stood off the shore, and when 
the anchor was at last cast on the evening of the 17th, the 
cable parted, compelling the Nina to lie to until morning. 

It was a singular fact that landing was at length accom- 
plished at the same islands from which departure was made 
in the preceding autumn, and that it was the frailest of the 
three vessels which succeeded in returning to these Portu- 
guese possessions, out of the very throat of the most 
violent storm that had been known in the memory of man. 

No sooner had the Nina effected an anchorage in the 
mouth of an inviting bay, than many of the inhabitants 
came out to welcome the voyagers, bringing such provisions 
as the island produced, and were regaled in turn with 
astounding stories of discovery and adventure in the New 
World. 

In fulfillment of the vow which the crew had solemnly 
recorded in an hour of imminent peril, Columbus, who was 
suffering severely from an attack of gout, besides exhaustion 
from exposure of a three days' unbroken watch, sent half of 
all his sailors to a hermitage not far from the anchorage to 
perform penance, while he sought a needed rest until their 
return. True to their holy obligation, the Spaniards went 
ashore, barefoot and with no more clothing than a short 
skirt, iiisufficient to hide their nakedness. Then, forming in 



144 COLUMBUS. 

procession, they marched towards the chapel, where a priest 
was engaged to perform mass. On the way, however, they 
were intercepted by a squad of soldiers, sent by Juan de Cas- 
taneda, governor of the island, to apprehend them for out- 
raging the proprieties of all civilization by thus exposing 
their nakedness to the rabble of villagers who followed 
close at their heels with hootings and objurgations. The 
arrest, as some authorities maintain, was not made until the 
Spaniards gained the chapel, and were in the act of per- 
forming their vows before the altar, when the governor him- 
self appeared and urged the soldiers to obey his orders, who 
then conducted the sailors to the garrison prison. 

The long absence of those of his crew who had gone on 
shore gave Columbus such uneasiness that he moved his 
ship to a position commanding a view of the hermitage, 
hoping thereby to ascertain the cause, and to be in a 
position to afford his men protection in case it was neces- 
sary. Scarcely had he dropped anchor again when the 
governor was seen riding down the hill at the head of a 
troop of horsemen, who were able to approach suf^ciently 
near the Ntna to give a hail, and directly a boat was pushed 
out which conveyed the governor on board the vessel. 
An interview then followed in which Castaneda informed 
Columbus of the arrest of his sailors, and that he had acted 
under commands of the King of Portugal. This developed 
a serious condition of affairs, w^hich Columbus could not 
help regarding as a hostile act, and he accordingly adopted 
vigorous measures to resist arrest, believing either that 
Spain and Portugal were at war, or that jealousy had 
prompted King John to concert means for his destruction. 
The defiant air of Castaneda gave color of reason to either 
assumption, and prevented an understanding of the real 
situation. The wind now increasing strongly off shore, 
Columbus was compelled to hoist his anchor and move out 



THE NEW WORLD. i45 

to sea again, where for two days he was buffeted about in 
great danger and with only half a crew to manage the ship. 
On the 22d the weather moderated sufificiently to permit 
a return to his first anchorage, where he was visited by a 
Portuguese notary and ten priests. Tlie interview whicli 
followed was of a more conciliatory character, the officer 
explaining that the governor had taken the Spaniards for 
pirates, which at that time infested every sea, but told 
Columbus if his commission and ship's papers were regular, 
the sailors w^ould be promptly liberated and proper apol- 
ogies made. The misapprehensions and suspicions of both 
parties were thus relieved by an exhibition of the letters 
patent ; those under arrest were set at liberty, and upon 
their return to the Nina Columbus and the others of his 
crew proceeded to fulfill their vows, according to the con- 
ditions of their self-imposed obligation. 

On the 24th of February, the Admiral, having replenished 
his stores, and made some necessary repairs to the ship, 
started again on his homeward voyage. For three days 
after leaving Santa Maria the weather was fair, and such 
speed was made that he reckoned the distance to Cape St. 
Vincent was not more than a thousand miles. Whoever 
studies carefully the movements of great enterprises, and 
discovering often at the very crisis of the thing about to be 
accomplished the opposition of adverse forces, marshaled as 
if in a battalion, and bearing down vehemently to prevent 
by sheer hostility and elemental war the completion of the 
work in hand, may almost become superstitious lest nature 
herself have confederated with diabolical agencies to thwart 
and ruin the hopes of men. It seemed in the present case 
that sky and sea and tempest, over and above the enmity 
of the human race, had conspired in the last hour to prevent 
the success of the great enterprise, to hurl back and send to 
the oblivion of ocean caverns the glorious discoveries which 
10 



146 COLUMBUS. 

Columbus had made in the Occident. On the night of 
February 27th, the storm god swooped out of the west 
again with fell fury in his breath, and struck the little vesssl 
with such terrific force that every timber in her groaned with 
the impact. Yet she rode before the blast without material 
injury until the night of March 2d, when the gale increased 
to such violence that in a trice the little sails still spread 
were burst and blown into tatters, while the vessel was 
plunged so deeply into the sea that it appeared she could 
never rise again. Great guns from the heavenly ramparts 
boomed their responses to the hissing of ficrj' dragons vault- 
ing across the skies. Clouds boiled like thick vapors from 
witches' caldrons until they seemed to take on shapes of 
demons, wraiths, monsters of hellish mien and Satanic hate, 
while dashing billows leaped up and shook their white locks 
defiant of the powers of air. So intense were the paroxysms 
of infuriate nature that all the world appeared to be torn 
asunder and chaos had grasped the sea in its withering 
hand. In the darkness that came as a mantle to hide the 
destruction of the elements, hope nearly perished, and but 
for the sustaining strength of pious faith Columbus would 
have abandoned himself to the fate which appeared inevi- 
table. In this hour of dreadful peril he had recourse to the 
means which seemed to avail him in an extremity scarcely 
more hopeless. Yielding to his soul's impulses, he mentally 
resolved to perform new penances, and assembling the 
crew, as best he could despite the plunging of the ship, he 
produced the cap of beans and bade each to draw one there- 
from. Most strange coincidence, when the drawing was com- 
pleted he found the marked bean in his own hand again : 
whereupon he took a vow that, if spared to gain the shore, 
hewouldmakea pilgrimage in bare feet to the shrine of 
Santa Maria de la Cueva (or Cinta), in Huelva. 

Whatever the cause, though devout persons will always 



THE NEW WORLD. I47 

consider it as a mark of propitiated deity, when the moin- 
ino- of March 3d broke, there was visible along the horizon 
of a leaden sky the shore of Portugal, against which break- 
ers were dashing mountain high. A cheer went up at this 
sight of land, but it was quickly hushed by a sudden real- 
ization of danger that broke in frantic dashing of huge 
billows along the rocky shore. So all day the Nina held 
to sea, bounding up and down on the great waves, until the 
following morning the promontory of Cintra, near Lisbon, 
was recognized, when an effort was made to enter the 
estuary of the Tagus, which was accomplished some time 
in the afternoon. 

The inhabitants of the town of Cascaes, and along the 
shore, had watched with painful suspense the dangerous 
buffeting of the strange vessel, every moment, for many 
hours, expecting its engulfment, and when at last a safe 
anchorage was reached thousands of persons came down to 
the bay and put off in boats to offer welcomes and congrat- 
ulations, which changed to praise and thanksgiving when 
they learned that the stranger was the Nina, with Colum- 
bus and his followers, bearing tidings from a new world. 
Directly the anchor was let go, Columbus dispatched a 
letter to King John, who was then with his court at Val- 
paraiso, thirty miles from Lisbon, requesting permission to 
enter and refit at the port of Lisbon, and asking protection 
during his stay in Portuguese waters, at the same time de- 
scribing, in the briefest way, the discoveries which he had 
made. Before a reply could be received, however, Colum- 
bus became involved in trouble with Alonzo de Acuna, 
commander of a man-of-war which lay in the road-stead, 
who peremptorily summoned the Admiral to report in per- 
son the object of his entering Portuguese waters. To this 
command the Admiral returned a defiant answer, but sent 
his commission bearing the autographs of Ferdinand and 



148 COLUMBUS. 

Isabella, which had the most pronounced effect. Thus 
learning his name, rank and mission, Acuna immediately 
returned his profound acknowledgments and proceeded to 
pay homage to the returned explorer as flattering as one 
brave man may pay another. Launching his largest boat, 
Acuna decorated it with bunting, in which Portuguese and 
Spanish banners were blended, and taking on board his 
military band, paid a visit of imposing display to Colum- 
bus, to whom he offered his services in the most generous 
spirit. 

The excitement which followed fast upon the report of 
Columbus' return and discoveries was indescribably intense, 
largely increased by the belief that his escape from the 
storms that had prevailed with unexampled fury must be 
due to a special manifestation of Providence in his behalf. 
The people made haste to inform him that no other such 
tempest had occurred within the memory of man. Scarcely 
any shipping along the coast of Europe had escaped de- 
struction, in proof of which the shores were strewn with 
wrecks of vessels; and yet the Nina, small and frail as she 
was, had survived all the wrathful violence of wind and 
waves, to bring back results of the grandest effort ever 
undertaken by an ambitious mind. 

The friendliness and enthusiasm of those that had gathered 
about the estuary of the Tagus was presently reinforced 
by receipt of a message from King John, in which the re- 
quests made by Columbus were not only granted, but he 
was complimented in the most flattering words of praise, 
and urgently invited to visit the court at its sitting in Val- 
paraiso. The same messenger that handed this cordial 
communication to Columbus also bore a patronizing letter 
from the King, directed to his officers, ordering that the 
Admiral and his crew be furnished without cost everything 
which they might require. 



THE NEW WORLD. 149 

Recognizing the graciousness and apparent sincerity of 
the King, Columbus was resolved to accept the invitation, 
and accordingly set out, accorhpanied by one of his pilots, 
acting as aide-de-camp, for Valparaiso. But scarcely had he 
started when he was met by several ofificers of the King's 
household, who had been sent to serve as his retinue and 
escort him on the journey. Having started at a late hour, 
it was necessary for Columbus to pass the night at Sa- 
camben, where, to his surprise, a princely entertainment 
was provided for him, at which the entire town united in 
demonstrations in his honor. 

The reception which King John accorded Columbus on 
his arrival at Valparaiso was as magnificent as would have 
characterized the welcome of the most powerful prince in 
all Europe. The most distinguished ambassador may not 
sit, or stand with covered head, in the presence of royalty, 
but so great was his courtesy towards and favor for Colum- 
bus, that the King treated him with the most cordial con- 
sideration regardless of rank, and conducting him to a seat 
directly before the throne, requested the great navigator to 
recite the story of his wonderful discoveries. 

The interest of King John was as intense as his regret 
was poignant, and he followed the narrative of Columbus 
as one might do who realized that he had lost a world 
through his own folly ; when he made his first comment 
on the results of the discoveries, it was to betray the 
jealousy and chagrin which disturbed his mind. Said he, 
" Your enterprise well deserves the praise of all mankind, but 
I feel the greater joy because, according to the treaty which 
we concluded with Castile, 1479, ^"^ '^^^^ Papal Bull of par- 
tition, the discovery of these new countries, and their con- 
quest, pertain to the crown of Portugal of right." To this 
unwarranted inference, which clearly exposed the King's 
feelings, Columbus deferentially replied that he had not 



150 COLUMBUS. 

read the treaty and was not informed as to Its nature ; but 
that acting under instructions from the Spanish sovereigns, 
which had taken the form of an order pubhshed in all the 
seaports of Andalusia, he had carefully avoided trenching 
upon Portuguese possessions. At this, the King cut him 
short by reminding him that the question would be settled 
without the intervention of his services as umpire. 

The interview thus terminated for that day, and Colum- 
bus was given over to the attention and care of the highest 
officers of the court, but on the following da}^, which was 
Sunday, King John invited Columbus to another conversa- 
tion, during which the monarch asked many questions, 
manifestly with the view of informing himself as fully as 
possible concerning the inhabitants, soil, climate, products, 
landscape, and, above all, the route to the new world, and 
the distance at which it lay ; to all of which questions a 
frank reply was returned, and at the conclusion of this 
audience Columbus was dismissed and the King summoned 
his Council for a conference. What transpired at this 
deliberation can only be conjectured, but nearly all authori- 
ties agree that a project for robbing Columbus of his dis- 
coveries was discussed, and that some of the more perfidious 
counselors even recommended his assassination. But such 
a proposal is so monstrous that, in view of the gracious 
attitude which the King publicly assumed to manifest his 
appreciation of Columbus, as well as his subsequent gen- 
erous conduct, the assertion appears preposterous. Sinis- 
ter designs may have been, and no doubt were, harbored 
against the Admiral by his many enemies, some of whom 
were very near the Portuguese Court, but the King was 
too chivalrous to entertain such iniquitous desire. He no 
doubt sincerely believed, in the imperfect knowledge of 
geography at the time, that some of the rights of Portugal, 
which had been guaranteed to her by the Papal Bull, and 



THE NEW WORLD. 151 

accorded to the infant Don Henry, had been infringed by 
the explorations of Columbus, but he was too shrewd a 
monarch to believe that such right, if violated, could be 
preserved through the assassination of one who was but an 
instrument or agent of the Spanish sovereigns. 

But while opposed to personal outrage. King John was 
open to other proposals, one of which flattered his expecta- 
tions as appearing to provide a means for acquiring peace- 
able possession of the new lands beyond the sea. The 
suggestion which found favor was that the King should at 
once equip a powerful squadron, able to maintain itself 
against Spain, seize the Portuguese sailors who had returned 
with Columbus, who would serve as guides, and thus 
equipped, send the fleet to the new lands to hold them 
against all claims of previous discovery. In the event of 
rupture between Portugal and Spain, King John could 
justify his act by the treaty of 1479, ^"d call upon the Pope 
to defend the Bull guaranteeing certain rights to Don 
Henry. 

This crafty advice so pleased the King that he immedi- 
ately resolved to adopt it as the basis of his policy. To 
enable him the better to carry it into effect, without at once 
arousing the hostility of Spain, he abated none of his 
courtesies to Columbus, but rather increased them. When 
the Admiral, therefore, expressed a desire to proceed to 
Spain, King John offered him a large escort to conduct him 
thither by land ; but Columbus desired to return to Palos 
first by water, so as to discharge his crew at that port, 
where many of them lived, and accordingly declined the 
monarch's proposal. But that he might not part from 
Columbus without further marks of his favor, the King 
presented him with several valuable gifts and sent Don 
Martin de Morofia and several lords of the court to conduct 
him safely to his vessel. 



152 COLUMBUS. 

The Queen, who was meanwhile sojourning at the monas- 
tery of Villa Franca, sent word to Columbus to call upon 
her while on his way back to the coast, which he did, and 
entertained her with recital of his discoveries and adven- 
tures in the New World. After the interview with her 
Majest}' he continued on to the Tagus, and on the follow- 
ing day set sail for Palos, where he arrived in safety about 
noon, March 15th, after an absence from that port of two 
hundred and twenty-five days. Thus was accomplished in 
the brief space of seven and one-half months the most 
important voyage, because most resultful, in all the annals 
of mankind ; one which crowns the brow of civilization with 
the most imperishable chaplet that fame has ever bestowed ; 
which, next to the salvation of the world, was the gift of a 
new one, and thus next to the prophet stands the discoverer. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The city of Palos, from whose quays the Columbian 
argonauts had set out on their great mission, stood smiling 
at a sea which, now tamed by a gentle breeze, lapped her 
feet with the affectionate joy that a hunter's hound caresses 
the hand of its master. Across the wide expanse of fathom- 
less waters the declining sun stretched his fingers of warmth 
as if to greet with congratulation and welcome the mariner 
who had explored the lands kissed by his fading beams. 
To howling storm had succeeded the laughter of zephyrs, 
and dashing wave-beats that heaved with fury against her 
rock-bound coast now fell away like one ashamed of anger, 
and came stealing up the beach leaving a lace-like tracery 
of foam upon the shore. This peaceful scene of nature, 
where sea, and sky, and landscape had blended in a har- 
mony that charmed the sensuous appetites of man in the 
soft and sun-lighted climes of Southern Spain, appeared 
like nature's preparation to receive with triumphal rejoicing 
the return of that great Admiral, who, like Ulysses, had 
survived a thousand ocean perils, but who, unlike that 
heroic Ithacan, had brought back his followers, and the 
story of a new world found where the sun falls into the sea. 

When the white but tattered sails of the Nina appeared 
in the offing, bearing towards the gates of Palos, excite- 
ment in the city — whither the news of Columbus' return 
had preceded him — became unbounded. Many wondered 
what fate had befallen the Pinta, but in the general belief 
Jong entertained that all had perished, there was unspeakable 



154 COLUMBUS. 

joy at the survival of even one vessel of the exploring 
squadron. So when the Nina dropped anchor before Palos, 
thousands flocked to the docks in their eagerness to meet 
friends or relatives who had sailed with Columbus, or to 
hear the dread story of how they had perished. One of 
the first to descry the incoming vessel was the faithful 
Juan Perez, the Father Guardian of La Rabida, who had 
watched with true paternal concern for many days from 
the upper window of the convent for the return of his 
friend. The Father's long deferred hopes being at last 
realized, he rushed with inexpressible delight towards the 
landing place, where he received Columbus, as he came on 
shore, with wide-open arms, and raised his eyes in thank- 
fulness to heaven for the blessings of that hour, and for 
the gift from God, through His instrument, of a new world. 
But faithful to the vows he had taken w4ien peril was 
greatest, Columbus hastened to the chapel of Palos, there 
to return thanks and give praises to heaven for the suc- 
cess which had attended his expedition, and for the Provi- 
dence that had permitted his safe return. 

De Lorgues says that Columbus was not alone in his de- 
votions before the shrine of the Virgin, but that the sacri- 
legious interruption of their vows by the Portuguese Gov- 
ernor on Santa Maria required its full accomplishment 
now, and that accordingly all the seamen, bare-footed and 
in their shirts, from the cabin boy even to the Admiral, in 
the piteous garb of shipwrecked mariners, went in proces- 
sion through the streets of Palos, to the chapel of La 
Rabida, and there offered their supplications in unison. 

While at his devotions Columbus heard a cry of joy 
raised outside of the chapel, and rising from his knees, 
learned with rapturous delight that the Pinta had been 
descried, and was now making her way across the bay to- 
wards the mouth of the Odiel. The pilot of the Pinta was 



THE NEW WORLD. 155 

the first to reach the shore, who in response to the urgings 
of Columbus gave report of the circumstances that had at- 
tended his ship after her separation from the Nina. The 
sails of the Pinta had been rent in tatters by the irresistible 
blasts of the storm, while her rudder was crippled by the 
powerful impact of heavy seas. Thus, practically helpless, 
she was driven into the Bay of Biscay. For a while she 
appeared to be doomed to certain destruction upon the 
breakers, but Pinzon, with his usual skill and apparently 
providential help, succeeded in casting an anchor which 
happily held her off the shore, where the vessel rode for 
more than a day before he considered it safe to make an 
effort to put into the harbor of Bayonne. On the 8th of 
March the storm had sufficiently subsided to permit of 
Pinzon bringing his shattered bark into the harbor, where, 
considering his situation, and believing that the Nina and 
her crew had undoubtedly perished, he proceeded to assert 
his claim to the honors and fame of the expedition. Ac- 
cordingly, he ventured to compose a letter to Ferdinand 
and Isabella, setting forth the principal incidents of the 
voyage, as he chose to relate them, and of the finding of 
the Indies, in which he claimed to have been the principal 
discoverer. This communication he dispatched to the 
Spanish Court at Barcelona, and then put to sea, arriving 
at Palos within a few hours after the return of Columbus. 
Plaving heard this report of the actions of Pinzon, Columbus 
expressed his surprise that the commander had not as yet 
come on shore, to which the pilot replied that discovering 
the Nina safe in the anchorage of Palos, Pinzon was greatly 
surprised and chagrined, and believing that his bad faith 
would soon be revealed, had taken his boat and gone pri- 
vately to shore. Effort was made then to find him, but he 
kept himself in privacy, determined not to meet Columbus, 
pondering over the perfidy which he had exhibited, and 



156 COLUMBUS. 

which was soon to break upon his head in the fullest power 
of smitten conscience. 

In a few days there came in answer to his communica- 
tion sent from Bayonne a letter from the sovereigns, who, 
hearing of the Admiral's arrival, and perceiving the falsity 
of Pinzon's heart and purpose, upbraided him for his con- 
duct and forbade him to come into their presence. The 
proud spirit of the captain gave way under this stroke. 
He sank under the unspeakable grief and mortification 
which this rebuke inspired, and in a few days died, as every 
one believed, of a broken heart. 

The defection of Martin Alonzo Pinzon is not without 
many examples in history, and considering the avaricious 
and condemnable ambitions of the age, as well as the at- 
tendant circumstances, his attempt to supplant Columbus 
may be partially condoned. It must be admitted that to 
him was due, in a large degree, the success of the expedi- 
tion. Being one of the first in Spain to appreciate the 
plans of Columbus, he not only used his influence to create 
favorable public opinion towards the expedition, but also 
aided it with great liberality. Not only did he contribute 
a vessel from his own means, but he embarked with his 
brothers and friends in the quest, thus hazarding both his 
property and his life in the enterprise. These circumstances, 
though receiving no consideration at the time, were sub- 
sequently generously regarded by Charles V., who, in recog- 
nition of the eminent services which Pinzon had rendered, 
granted his family the rank and privileges of nobility, and 
also conferred upon them a coat of arms emblematic of 
the great discovery. 

The first formal act of Columbus was to send a letter to 
Ferdinand and Isabella announcing briefly his arrival at 
Palos and the success of his undertaking. While awaiting 
ft reply thereto he was the center of public interest and was 



THE NEW WORLD. 157 

assailed by a thousand inquiries concerning the new world 
from which he had just returned. For a greater part of the 
interval he was the guest of Father Perez, to whom fell the 
pleasant task of saying mass and offering thanksgiving for 
the return of the expedition and the glorious work that had 
been accomplished. After this the sailors were for the 
most part discharged, many of whom had their homes in 
the town or neighborhood, and a few, as will be recalled, 
were under conviction for high crimes at the time of their 
departure. But such was the temper of the public mind in 
thankfulness for the great discoveries made that punishment 
of the criminals was not only remitted, but they were con- 
verted into men of historic renown. It was thus for a few 
days that Columbus passed the time in the Monastery of La 
Rabida, conversing with the Fathers of St. Francis and out- 
lining his plans for the future. He also availed himself of 
the opportunity to send letters to his wife at Cordova, and 
to transmit a communication by messenger to Genoa, bear- 
ing the good news to the people of his native town, and 
asking his venerable father, and his brother Guiacomo, 
known in history as Don Diego, to come at once to see him 
in Spain. Nor did the discoverer and his friend, Father 
Perez, fail to forward a petition to the Pope, praying the 
issuance of a Papal ordinance establishing a line of demar- 
cation north and south one hundred leagues to the west of 
the Azores, thus dividing the seas and land, and providing 
that west of this line all new discoveries and possessions 
should belong to Spain. This petition of the Admiral was 
used as the basis of the famous Papal Bull issued by Pope 
Alexander VL on the 3d of May, 1493. 

Having attended to these preliminaries, Columbus pro- 
ceeded to Seville, where he received the first communica- 
tion from their Majesties, containing a request for him to 
repair at once to Barcelona for a personal intcrvicvv'. As 



158 COLUMBUS. 

he hc'ul been in expectation of such a command he iinmedi- 
ately set forth on his journey, which was destined to be 
the most memorable personal event ever witnessed in the 
Spanish peninsula. The route of the Admiral lay through 
the provinces of Valencia, Murcia and Castile, the fairest 
portions of Spain, and the journey developed into a trium- 
phal procession commemorated in song and story for more 
than a century afterwards, and which may be heard in Spain 
to this day. The route all along was thronged with people, 
who gave themselves up to transports of jubilant demon- 
stration. Crowds of shouting people followed after the 
procession, eager to get a glance at the greatest man of the 
age, and moved with equal curiosity to behold the strange 
beings and wonderful things which he had brought with 
him from the Indies. 

Meanwhile, the Spanish sovereigns made extraordinary 
preparations to receive the man who had brought such great 
honor to their names. A solemn and beautiful scene was 
prepared in the great throne-room where the sovereigns 
held their court, and where the //zV^ of the nobility were 
gathered to welcome the great Admiral in the presence of 
their Majesties. As Columbus approached Barcelona on 
the morning of April 15th, many gayly-dressed cavaliers rode 
forth to meet him, and to act as a guard of honor in con- 
ducting him into the city. A marvelous sight was pre- 
sented as the cavalcade passed through the gates of the 
city. The streets were not only crowded with people, but 
the housetops were covered with humanity, rending the 
air with shouts of admiration and welcome. Columbus, 
too, had carefully prepared his little procession so that the 
effect might be as striking as possible. Six of the ten 
natives whom he had brought with him from the Indies 
(one dying on the return voyage and three being left sick in 
Palos), gorgeously painted and adorned in their own fashion, 



THE NEW WORLD. 159 

were placed in the front. After them were borne parrots 
and other creatures, living or dead, which the Admiral had 
collected as examples of the animal life of the New World. 
Following these were carried a collection of natural produc- 
tions, including cotton, tobacco and medicinal plants, and 
next to these were exposed to view, on litters, ornaments 
made from gold, and specimens of precious stones which 
had been obtained from the natives. At the rear rode 
Columbus, accompanied by a brilliant throng of hidalgos 
and grandees of Spain. 

No prouder moment in the life of any man has been re- 
corded than that when the great Admiral of the ocean seas 
was ushered before Spain's sovereigns. While eminently 
practical in many positions requiring genius to direct, Co- 
lumbus was acutely susceptible to the blandishments and 
praises of men, the spectacular appealing especially to his 
nature. Those who have best studied his character have 
therefore m.any times pointed out the qualities of a knight 
and crusader, which were particularly prominent in his com- 
position. The apparent elation of spirit which this scene 
inspired in him was conspicuous in his bearing, though he 
never subordinated his dignity to the pomp of egotism. 
He was excusable, too, in contrasting the harsh bufletings, 
disappointments and mortifications which he had suffered 
for nearly a quarter of a century, with the triumph which 
he had achieved, and the national homage thus paid to his 
persistence and genius. 

Upon being ushered into the royal presence Columbus 
beheld Ferdinand and Isabella seated upon their thrones 
under a splendid canopy of gold brocade, while beside them 
sat Prince Juan, heir apparent to the Spanish crown. Upon 
either hand were arranged many nobles and officers of the 
government, including grandees of Castile, Aragon, Valencia 
and Catalonia, and counselors of state, ministers and other 



i6o COLUMBUS. 

dignitaries, while as many richly dressed ladies attended 
upon the Queen. Columbus, whose appearance had now 
grown venerable through the markings of care in his coun- 
tenance and hair, walked forward to salute their Majesties, 
his face lighted up with a smile of intense gratification. 
About to kneel in their presence and kiss their hands ac- 
cording to the courtly manners of the age, the King and 
Queen hesitated to accept the obeisance of a man who had 
reflected such distinguished honors not only upon himself, 
but upon the Spanish Crown as well. They accordingly 
themselves arose from their seats, and raising him from his 
bended posture, invested him with the insignia of a grandee, 
and commanded him to sit in a rithly decorated arm-chair 
immediately in front of them, a thing unknown at royal re- 
ceptions, except in cases of princes and nobles of the highest 
rank. Thus seated, Columbus was to recite to the royal 
ears the interesting story of his voyage and wonderful dis- 
coveries. Presenting the trophies and exhibits of his ex- 
pedition, Columbus next introduced the natives, whom he 
brought from the strange country of the Indies, and in 
presenting them before the interested King and Queen de- 
scribed their manners, virtues and mode of life ; likewise 
the birds and animals were exhibited, as also the fruits and 
foreign plants, and their value to man explained. In a like 
manner the gold ore, in its native state, and in ornaments, 
was then produced to delight the avaricious eyes of the 
sovereigns and their court. Under the influence of his san- 
guine temperament Columbus could not forbear to point 
out, as if by prophecy, a greater promise of future explora- 
tions and discoveries. The things displayed as the fruits 
of his first voyage were mere hints of more abundant things 
to come. 

The effect produced by this recitation and exhibition was 
well marked. At times the King and Queen exhibited 



THE NEW WORLD. i6t 

great emotion, and at the close of the interview, prompted 
by religious impulse, they sank upon their knees, offering 
up thanksgiving for the great things which had been ac- 
complished in their reign. After the sovereigns had thus 
poured forth their thanks and praises, the great choir of the 
Royal Chapel took up the anthem of the 7> Dcnni and 
rendered it with all the unction and solemnity of the hour. 

At the close of the first interview with Ferdinand and 
Isabella, Columbus was conducted to the place assigned for 
his residence and entertainment. But the interest attach- 
ing to his person and his deeds did not quickly subside. 
The people of Barcelona and the surrounding region con- 
tinued to watch for his appearing, and to follow his train 
wherever he went. Meanwhile his mind was occupied with 
the revision of old plans and with new dreams which came 
with his triumph. The possibility of doing some great 
thing for the extension and uplifting of the Catholic cause 
in the far cast occurred, as it had often done before, in this 
hour of his exaltation. One of the motives which he had 
formerly presented to the King and Queen for patronizing 
his voyage of discovery was the religious use to which the 
vast wealth of the Indies might be diverted by the sover- 
eigns in case they should be able to replenish their coffers 
from the Orient. The particular thing now contemplated 
was the old project of recovering the Holy Land and the 
tomb of Christ from the infidels. 

At the present juncture, Columbus did not hesitate to 
offer his services and the expected wealth of the New World 
in the sacred cause of expelling Islamism from Palestine. 
He engaged within the space of seven years to furnish, from 
his part of the profits of the Indies, the means with which 
to raise an army of fifty thousand infantry and four thousand 
horse for a new crusade. Nor did he doubt that in another 
five years a second army of like proportions could be raised 



l62 COLUMBUS. 

and equipped from the same resources. To do this thing 
he recorded a vow. Nor can there be any doubt of his 
confidence and sincerity. His dream contemplated the 
deliverance of Western Asia and Eastern Europe from the 
Turks and Arabs, and the setting up of the Cross in place 
of the fallen Crescent. 

In a short time the intelligence of the discovery of another 
world was disseminated not only throughout Spain, but 
over all Western Europe. Everywhere the tidings were 
received with astonishment, as though the revelation had 
come from another planet. Perhaps at no other epoch, and 
with no other event in the history of the human race, had 
so sudden and great a transformation been accomplished in 
the thoughts and speculations of men. The misty con- 
jectures of a thousand years respecting the mysteries of the 
ocean and the figure of the earth were suddenly swept away. 
Vague mythologies, geographical fictions, artificial construc- 
tions, and possibilities of an impossible geography, dim and 
exaggerated stories of the unknown deep and islands of the 
West, were brushed with one stroke of a magic hand into 
that limbo of oblivion where had accumulated, was accum- 
ulating, and still accumulates, the vagaries, the myths and 
the superstitions of the human mind. Henceforth no 
rational being, informed to any considerable degree in the 
elements of existing knowledge, could doubt the sphericity 
of the earth and the practicability of sailing around it. It i:^ 
from this point of contemplation that the work of Columbus 
assumes its just importance in the history of mankind. 

In the Columbian age, intelligence of the things done by 
men still ran with difficulty along the impeded channels of 
intercourse. The flying post was yet no swifter of wing 
than the foot of man or fleetness of the galloping steed. 
None had yet conceived of the possibility of subordinating 
the elements of nature to the purposes of dispatch. The 



THE NEW WORLD. 163 

flying car, the ocean steamer, the electric flash : how far 
away were all of these from the imaginations of that era 
which saw the revelation of the New World ! 

Nevertheless the news went abroad. It was borne by sea 
to Italy and was heard with wonder in those old sea-coast 
towns of the Rivieras, out of which the man Columbus had 
arisen to revolutionize the opinions of mankind with respect 
to the possibilities of the habitable globe. 'It was carried 
through the notches of the Pyrenees, and was heard at 
Lyons, at Aix, and Paris. It was disseminated to North- 
western Europe, and Giovanni Kaboto, of Venice, heard the 
story in the streets of London, marveling much at the 
thing done, but believing it more than possible. It spread 
through Central and Eastern Europe, till the sound 
thereof was heard in the city of the Eastern Csesars — ■ 
just forty years before conquered by Mohammed II. and 
his Turks — was rumored in Antioch, in Cairo, in Damascus, 
and fashioned into vague story by the barbaric Kurds guard, 
ing their flocks from the prowling jackals among the ruins 
of Khorsabad and Nimrud. 

Such, however, were the uncertainties of knowledge in 
the Columbian age that none might discern the true nature 
and limitations of the great event. The data which Colum- 
bus had brought back with him from the hitherto unknown 
West were misinterpreted and misapplied by the discoverer 
himself, as well as by all the wise men of the generation. 
The Admiral was fixed in his belief that he had reached the 
East Indies and the shores of Asia. His confidence that 
Cuba was the easternmost cape of the Asiatic continent was 
unshaken, and his beliefs in these particulars were accepted 
by all. The errors thus arising — many and peculiar as they 
were — were mixed and mingled with all that was thought 
and said and done. The theory of the situation thus bound 
together the western shores of Europe and the eastern 



i64 COLUMBUS. 

borders of Asia by an easy and practicable voyage of less 
than three thousand miles of unobstructed waters. The 
resources of the Orient seemed to be thus suddenly displayed 
as if t>ome beneficent destiny stood ready, with a tremendous 
cornucopia, to pour out the treasures of the most ancient 
and opulent nations of the globe into the lap of waiting 
Europe. These speculations might well divert us from the 
mere narrative of events to consider the question of the age 
from the standpoint of philosophical inquiry. But we must 
return to the Admiral and his work, leaving the reader to 
formulate for himself not only the splendid vision of the 
scene, but the true nature and dependencies by which the 
great event was held in its historical connections. Columbus 
was in the heyday of a great renown. Perhaps no man of 
history was ever in a situation to enjoy more fully the 
honors and rewards of successful and glorious enterprise. 
The discoverer drank it all in with many a full draught, but 
without satiety. To him, if much had been accomplished, 
still more remained behind. The mind of the Admiral 
was of that rare and noble fashion which can only live in 
the heat and light of ideality and imagination. Already, 
before his departure from Barcelona, greater visions than 
ever before had risen upon him, and though he was dazzled 
with the realization of his dreams, he nevertheless, with 
his habitual sagacity, made his arrangements for the future. 
It has not happened to men of other than royal blood to 
become in a half-feudal age the familiar companions of kings 
and princes. This fate, the happiness of which the reflective 
mind may well be disposed to doubt, was given in full 
measure to Columbus. His sovereigns treated him almost 
as an equal. King Ferdinand rode abroad with him, and as 
if to couple the honor with the honors of the future, the 
young Prince Juan was mounted on the other side of the 
sovereign. Now it was that that famous Columbian coat of 



THE NEW WORLD. 165 

arms was devised, granted and confirmed to the Admiral 
as a perpetual memorial to him and his descendants. It was 
fashioned like the royal banner of Castile. In the lower 
left-hand corner were the outlines of a sea dotted with islands 
and shores, significant of the immortal discovery which 
Columbus had made. On the right-hand quarter, below, 
were the five memorable anchors ; above was that rampant 
lion which has been so much prefigured in the heraldry of 
nations. Last of all, and at the left hand above, was the 
castle, or citadel of strength, surmounted by the three towers 
significant of the united kingdoms, Castile, Leon, Aragon. 
To this was appended that Spanish motto of great fame 
which mankind will not willingly let die : 

A Castilla y a Leon, 

Nuevo mundo dio Colon. 
Castile and Leon. Colon sets 
A New World in their coronets. 

To all these honors, other distinctions and emoluments 
were gladly added by the crown. It was at this time that 
the question of the actual first sight of the nev/ lands in 
the West was adjudged and decided. The issue, of course, 
lay between Columbus himself and that Juan Rodriguez 
Bermejo, of the Phita, according to the statement of De 
Lorgues, and of Rodrigo de Triana, as stated by Irving and 
other authorities, whose cry of land on the morning of the 1 2th 
of October we have mentioned as the certain signal of the 
discovery. But the reader will remember that the Admiral 
had already, several hours previously, seen a light. Two 
things were involved in the decision: first, the honor of the 
first glimpse of the New World ; and, secondly (not to be 
despised), the pension which the sovereigns had promised 
to the discoverer. 

The question was not easily decided. Doubtless, if the 
conditions had been reversed, that is, if Bermejo had seen 



i66 COLUMBUS. 

the light and Columbus had seen the land, the decision 
would have been more easy. As it was, the royal court 
adjudged the honor to him to whom it was only possibly, 
though improbably, due, but was certainly less needy, and 
doubtless deserved it less than the humble mariner of the 
Pinta. As for Bermejo, the decision was accepted with in- 
finite chagrin. He had staked everything upon his claim, 
and the judgment against him was fatal to the one great 
hope of his life. He immediately renounced his country 
forever, cast aside the Christian religion as a delusion of 
fraud and of sin, went to Africa, became an Islamite, and 
died under the banner of the Prophet. 

From the first day of his return to Europe — from the 
moment that the intelligence of the great discovery was 
carried to the ears of the sovereigns — it was evident to all 
that the work done by Columbus was merely the first move- 
ment of a vast enterprise. None were foolish enough to sup- 
pose that the new countries in the Far West had been fully 
revealed. The leading minds of Spain perceived at a glance 
that the thing done was only the first glimpse at a gold 
mine, the limits and extent of which none might know. 
The imaginations of men flew to the far islands of the New 
World, and began to construct there cities and temples and 
palaces. 

Under such conditions, the project of new discoveries and 
explorations flashed in full light about the Spanish Court. 
The sovereigns in their very first letter to the Admiral, who 
was then at Seville, made haste to tell him that he should, 
in that city, before setting out for Barcelona, take the initia- 
tive for a new expedition. Whatever things he might see 
necessary to be done, to that end he should do, even before 
his personal interview with their Majesties. Columbus 
himself was deeply concerned about the second voyage, and 
eagerly promoted the preparations therefor. The subject 



THE NEW WORLD. 167 

was interwoven like a thread in all the communications 
which he had with the King and Queen. It no longer re- 
quired urging to convince the sovereigns of the importance 
of extending their empire in the West. 

The outlines of the new expedition, which now had its 
relation to the West Indies and the methods of possessing 
them, were at once devised. The summer — season most 
favorable and indeed only favorable for the expedition — 
was a Iready at hand, and it was necessary to expedite the 
preparations, or else put off the voyage to another year. 
The jealousy of Portugal, and the knowledge of what she 
might attempt, furnished a whip and spur to the crown. 
The sovereigns deemed it expedient to establish a sort of 
bureau for the conduct of Indian affairs, and the city of 
Seville was selected as the outfitting place of the enterprise. 
At the head of this branch of the administration was placed 
as superintendent and director-general, Don Juan de Fon- 
seca. Archdeacon of Seville, a man of great abilities, but 
little scrupulous in the matter of choosing his means and 
methods. The treasurer of the new department was Fran- 
cisco Pinelo, and the comptroller, Juan de Soria. The idea 
was that the exclusive jurisdiction of all intercourse and 
commerce between the mother country and the Indies 
should belong to the bureau, and that everything not de- 
vised and directed thereby should be under the ban of ill- 
egality. One of the first steps was to establish at the port of 
Cadiz a custom house, to which all the prospective com- 
merce of the Indies should be reported, and the scheme of 
administration extended to the creation of a like office in 
San Domingo, which was to be administered by the Admiral 
himself, or his subordinate. 

We may pause here a moment to note the favor in which 
Columbus was held by the nobility. The greatest men of 
the kingdom — and they were many — sought hl3 act]uaint-» 



i68 COLUMBUS. 

ance, and gave their countenance to his cause. Among 
those with whom Columbus now fell into intimate relations 
was Pedro Gonzales de Mendoza, the Spanish grand car- 
dinal, of whom we have spoken in a former chapter. The 
latter invited the discoverer to his castle, and discussed with 
him at length the future policy of the Church with respect 
to the new countries of the West, and in particular the best 
means of converting the natives. 

It was during his stay at the castle of Mendoza that Co- 
lumbus, being at a banquet given in his honor by the car- 
dinal, gave the celebrated reply and demonstration to one 
of the company who was disposed to cavil at the originality 
of the recent work of discovery. This small courtier — not, 
we may say, without some reason, but with the worst of 
bad manners — began to inquire of the Admiral whether, if 
he had failed to reach the islands and mainland of the 
western seas, some other would not have been soon led under 
like motives to undertake and accomplish the enterprise. 
Hereupon Columbus took an egg, and passing it to the 
company, challenged any and all to make it stand on end. 
None could do it. None perceived the possibility of doing 
it. Having it returned to him, the Admiral brought it 
down with a force endwise upon the table, broke and crushed 
the shell to a certain extent, and left it standing. The appli- 
cation and meaning of the act were suf^ciently clear: you 
can make an egg stand on the end provided you know how 
to do it. 

The six Indians who had been taken to Barcelona were 
regarded with profound interest by churchmen, who thought 
it wise to have them baptized and instructed in the doc- 
trines of Christianity. This was accordingly done, and the 
conceit of the time pointed them out as the first evangelists 
and examplers of the true faith in the Indies. .So little ap- 
prehension did any man of that age have of the laws which 



THE NEW WORLD. 169 

govern human evolution that all supposed the aborigines of 
the West Indies able, by the touch of the Church, to ad- 
vance at once to the plane of an ancient faith having its 
origin and development among a Semitic people in the Far 
East, and to enter at a single bound into the communion 
and relationship of civilized nations. 

Meanwhile, preparations were going forward rapidly and 
successfully for the new voyage. The theory of the situa- 
tion was this: Columbus had discovered the Indies by the 
western route, and the discovery having been made under 
the banners and patronage of Spain, this fact gave to the 
Spanish crown a right to occupy, possess and govern the 
islands and continents which had been thus found. As to 
the peoples occupying those lands, the aboriginal nations, 
they had no rights of possession which Christian kings and 
princes must recognize and observe. The monarchs of 
Christendom had, since the Crusading epoch, an agreement, 
amounting to a clause in international law, that any Chris- 
tian sovereign whose subject might discover unoccupied 
lands or regions inhabited by Pagans, should have the right 
of discovery, pre-emption and preoccupation, as against all 
other princes whatsoever. Each monarch conceded to the 
others this right of discovery, and the rule was now plainly 
applicable to the case of the Spaniards in the West Indies. 
It was this principle that had secured to the recent Kings of 
Portugal the exclusive rights to their province of La Mina 
and the coast of Guinea ; and it was the same principle 
which now held back and thwarted the ambition of John 
II., chafing and fretting in his anxiety to clutch the islands 
lately visited by the Columbian fleet. 

We have already spoken of the letter sent by Columbus 
on his arrival to His Holiness, the Pope. The Spanish 
sovereigns readily took up the thought of Columbus relative 
to a dividinsj line through the Atlantic under the sanction 



170 COLUxAIBUS. 

of Papal authority. They accordingly made haste to open 
negotiations with Alexander VI. concerning the proposed 
arrangement. The Pope was himself a Spaniard, and the 
tie of birth had been recently strengthened by many events 
well calculated to draw the attention and affections of the 
Supreme Pontiff to his native land. In the very year just 
past the Spanish sovereigns, in a war which had many of 
the features of the Crusades, had first cooped up and then 
ultimately expelled the Islamite Moors from the peninsula. 
With scarcely less zeal, they had assailed, persecuted, sup- 
pressed and robbed the Jews. The whole of Spain had 
thus been redeemed and consolidated under the cross — a 
circumstance most grateful to the ambitions and pontifical 
pride of Alexander. 

The Spanish monarchs, in opening the question at the 
Court of Rome, were doubtful whether so great a claim as 
that which they now advanced would be acknowledged and 
ratified. Ferdinand deemed it prudent in his letter to the 
Pope to assume that the sanction of His Holiness, in con- 
firmation of the rights of the Spanish crown to the new 
lands discovered in the west, was not essential to the valid- 
ity of the claim ; but the good, obedient and faithful 
Catholic Majesty thought it best — such was his allegation 
—as a true son of the Church to ask the Holy Father to 
ratify and confirm aright that which the princes of Chris- 
tendom had already conceded the one to the other. 

The Pope for his part was greatly elated with the intelli- 
gence. He perceived the expediency of granting the claim 
of their most Catholic Majesties. Accordingly, on the 3d 
of May, 1493, he issued that celebrated Bull, establishing 
the line of demarcation between the discoveries of Portugal 
and those of Spain. The line, as we have said before, was 
drawn north and south one hundred leagues to the west of 
the Azores, On the east of the line Portugal should have 



THE NEW WORLD. 171 

free course in the discovery, possession and occupation of 
all lands not previously visited or occupied by the subjects 
of a Christian king. To the west of the line Spain should 
have pre-emption. The New World, whatever it was, should 
be hers. Her work of discovery and occupation should 
go on unimpeded and her rights should be exclusive and 
absolute. 

Thus were all the inhabited and habitable parts of the 
globe, except those regions which were already occupied by 
Christian states and kingdoms, divided by a Papal decree 
with an imaginary line drawn north and south through the 
Atlantic Ocean. The concession of the Supreme Pontiff 
was sufficiently ample, and sufficiently surprising, when 
followed to its probable results, Spain might discover and 
occupy all uninhabited and Pagan lands lying westward of 
the division. Suppose that the Spanish fleets should press 
their way westward around the earth, where would their 
rights be limited? Might they not go on around until by 
circumnavigation they should take the whole world } Or, 
in the case of Portugal, might she not press her discoveries 
eastward until she should come around to these very West 
Indies, claim them, and take them under the Papal sanc- 
tion ? The Pope had, in a word, granted everything to 
Spain, and everything to Portugal. But the Pacific Ocean, 
still unknown, as well as the American Continents, lay 
between to prevent a conflict of claims in the region of the 
antipodes ; the Papal Bull was saved from absurdity by the 
bigness of the globe. 

The new bureau for the government of the Indies was 
quickly organized. The establishment was destined to 
grow in course of time into that Royal India House, under 
the auspices of which the commercial and political affairs 
of Spain and her outlying possessions in the West were so 
long, so despotically, and so profitably directed, The au« 



i;2 COLUMBUS. 

thority of the office was absolute, both as to the persons 
concerned in the trade with the Indies and the trade itself. 
It was to this bureau, under the conduct of De Fonseca, 
that the business of fitting out the new squadron for Colum- 
bus was now intrusted. 

The enterprise was pressed with the utmost vigor. A 
decree was issued, by which Fonseca and Columbus were 
authorized to purchase any ships that might be in port on 
the coast of Andalusia, or, in case of refusal, to impress them 
for the expedition. The same despotic rule was established 
in the matter of furnishing and equipping the vessels, and 
even in enlisting the crews. Mariners might be conscripted 
under pay for the proposed service, and the civil officers of 
the province were commanded to lend their aid in carrying 
out the provisions of the act. 

As might be supposed, however, the work of obtaining 
ships and supplies and men was now no longer difficult. 
Many captains were ready to offer their vessels for such a 
voyage. The supplies might be readily procured from 
stores that had been sealed against all petitions when the 
first contemplated voyage was to be undertaken. As for 
the crews, the spirit of adventure had now come to supply 
a motive of embarkation on an expedition to the wonderful 
Indies across the Atlantic. Some difficulty arose over the 
appropriation of money for the second voyage. The work 
was under the patronage of the King and Queen. As for 
the treasury of the new bureau of the India House, that 
was empty. But the sovereigns set aside a part of the eccle- 
siatical revenue, and this was placed to the credit of the 
Indian Secretary, Pinelo. In the previous year, during the 
persecution and expulsion of the Jews, vast amounts of 
property, especially in jewels and plate, had been confis- 
cated by royal edict, and this also went into the new treasury. 
Finally the secretary was authorized to negotiate a loan, if 



THE NEW WORLD. i;3 

such should be needed, for the expeditious fitting out of 
the squadron. 

Columbus, in these days of honor and influence, took 
care to fortify his own interests and those of his descend- 
ants by obtaining an additional patent and confirmation 
of his rights from the King and Queen. The paper in ques- 
tion was the third of those remarkable documents upon 
which the first political relations between Europe and 
America were established. In the present case, Columbus 
deemed it prudent that the new patent of authority should 
recite the existing agreement between himself and their 
Majesties made in the preceding year. The second charter 
was drawn accordingly, at the city of Barcelona, under date 
of the 28th of May, 1493. After enumerating all the exist- 
ing covenants between the sovereigns and Don Christopher 
Columbus, and stating in the introductory part the nature 
of the petition which Columbus had submitted, the docu- 
ment proceeded to confer upon him certain specific rights, 
among which was a confirmation of all the benefits pre- 
viously granted, and which were to descend in perpetuity 
to his heirs; besides which were delegated extraordinary 
powers, not only as governor of all the new possessions, but 
such judicial authority as made him the supreme arbiter of 
all disputes arising therein. In short, he was practically 
made King of the new world, with all the royal prerogatives 
thereto attaching. 

The new squadron, prepared and supplied under the 
direction of De Fonseca, was in its extent and character 
strongly contrasted with the little fleet which had made the 
first voyage to the Indies. The armament consisted of 
three vessels of the largest build, nine ships of medium 
burden and five caravels. The cargo was of the most mis- 
cellaneous description. Several breeds of domestic animals, 
which had not been found in the Indies, were taken on 



174 COLUMBUS. 

board, including horses and swine. A large varietj'' of 
plants and collections of seeds and implements of husbandry 
were provided, with a view to the agricultural development 
of the new lands. The place selected for the equipment of 
the fleet was Cadiz, though the management was located 
at Seville. Meanwhile Columbus, satisfied with his fame 
and honor, bade farewell to the King and Queen, left Barce- 
lona on the 28th day of May, and made his way to the 
coast. On the day of his departure the Spanish Court 
attended the Admiral from the palace to his own residence, 
and there he took final leave of their Majesties. It was the 
high noon of his destiny. 

Before fixing our attention upon the squadron which was 
fitted and provisioned at Cadiz during the summer months, 
it may be well to glance for a moment at the serious ques- 
tions which were now pending between Spain and Portugal. 
It will be remembered that after the arrival of Columbus at 
Lisbon, and his interview with King John, the latter had 
been advised by his council to anticipate the Spanish gov- 
ernment in the occupation and possession of the new lands 
discovered in the West. This advice was adopted by the 
King, and orders were secretly given for the equipment of 
a fleet to sail into the western waters and seize upon the 
islands and mainland found by Columbus. In order to 
cover the movement, it was given out that the expedition 
was intended for the African coast, where the Portuguese 
had already fixed themselves by discovery and posses- 
sion. 

The King of Portugal now sent to Barcelona one of his 
diplomatists, Ruy de Sande, to allay any suspicion that 
might be entertained by the Spanish Court respecting the 
movements and purposes of Portugal. The ambassador 
was instructed to speak to King Ferdinand about certain 
aggressions of the Spanish fishermen beyond Cape Bojador, 



THE NEW WORLD. i;5 

and to ask that an interdict be issued on that question. 
The sovereigns of Spain were congratulated on the success 
of the Columbian voyage and thanked that the Admiral 
had, in the prosecution of his enterprise, kept clear of the 
Portuguese possessions and fields of discovery. There had 
been an understanding between the two courts that the 
Spaniards in their maritime adventures should steer to 
the west of the Canaries, leaving the seas on the south as 
the preserve of Portugal. De Sande was instructed to 
gain from the Spanish King a reaf^rmation of this arrange- 
ment, and to hint that any difference of opinion between 
the two powers should be settled by negotiation. 

There has not been a time in modern history when the 
jealousy and distrust of two monarchs were m.ore deeply 
inflamed than in the case of Ferdinand and King John. 
Both sovereigns were endowed by nature with a suspicious 
and wary disposition. In abilities the two were not dis- 
similar, and their ambitions were of a like trend and limita- 
tion. Their principles of action were such as might be 
expected in an age when the Inquisition was adopted as a 
means of reform by the Church, and when the rules of inter- 
national law were deduced from the writings of Machiavelli. 
In their purpose to succeed by craft and duplicity the one 
king was even as the other; but in subtlety and fox-like 
shrewdness, the Spanish ruler was the superior of his adver- 
sary. It appears, however, that King John, better than his 
rival, had learned the potent and diabolical influence of 
money in accomplishing political results. He had adopted 
the plan of bribing certain spies at the Spanish Court, who, 
being attached in several capacities to the government of 
Ferdinand, were able to keep their employer constantly in- 
formed, not only of the things done, but also of the things 
purposed. In the battle of wit and craft, which now ensued 
during the early part of 1493, the advantages of intrigue 



176 COLUMBUS. 

remained with Ferdinand, while the benefits of systematic 
bribery accrued to King John. 

It is not needed that we should here relate the details of 
the diplomatic contest between the two courts. At one 
time Ferdinand sent his ambassador, Lope de Herrera, to 
Lisbon, with two sets of instructions, and documents of 
exactly opposite intent. But of this maneuver the Portu- 
guese King had already been informed by his spies, and the 
scheme of the Spanish King was checkmated. At a later 
date, and in order to gain time, Ferdinand sent two pleni- 
potentiaries to his " beloved cousin " to open a discussion 
about the Western seas and the new lands found therein, 
that might last until the second Columbian squadron could 
set sail. But the purpose of the Spanish monarch had 
again been anticipated by the wary John, and nothing was 
gained by the maneuver. 

In the respective relations of the two governments with 
the Court of Rome, however, the case was different. At 
that tribunal the advantage was wholly on the side of Spain. 
The negotiations of Ferdinand with Pope Alexander had 
already led to an understanding, which presently became a 
status that nothing could disturb. The Papal Bull dividing 
the Atlantic held against all intrigue and contrivance of the 
Portuguese King, and in the existing condition of affairs he 
durst not send his squadron to the West Indies. 

At one time, during the summer, it was reported at 
Barcelona that a Portuguese vessel had been dispatched 
from the Azores on a west-bound voyage. A protest was 
immediately forwarded by Ferdinand to Lisbon, and at the 
same time De Fonseca was ordered to send two Spanish 
caravels in pursuit. After a brief interval, communication 
was received from the Portuguese Court to the effect that 
no such expedition as that reported had been undertaken ; 
nor did Spanish investigation ever bring such an adventure 



THE NEW WORLD. 177 

to liglit. The story was doubtless a fiction. The King of 
Portugal was balked in every effort which he made to re- 
cover his lost prestige. For him and his kingdom the 
golden opportunity was gone, and he must henceforth un- 
willingly assent to the adverse destiny which had decreed 
the discovery and possession of the New World to the 
crown of Spain. 

12 



CHAPTER IX. 

A BLAZE of glory shot up like a rocket and spread its 
dazzling shower over all Spain. The spirit of war, which 
had produced so many valorous knights in the Moorish 
contention, now gave place, by a sudden change of aspiration, 
to an ambition that set its sign in the New World, where 
brighter opportunity for exploitation was offered in dis- 
covery, adventure and conquest. 

The work of fitting the second squadron for Columbus 
was accordingly completed with ^clat. We have already 
referred to the character of the fleet, the crew and the 
cargo. Under the first plan it was intended to limit the 
number of sailors and passengers to one thousand ; but so 
great was the enthusiasm that, by solicitation of volunteers 
and the urgency of friends, the number was extended 
to twelve hundred. Even this limit was surpassed under 
pressure, and, by means of various excuses, intrigues and 
favoritism, three hundred additional adventurers managed 
to get on board. 

In so far as Columbus himself determined the character 
of the expedition, the passengers were selected with re- 
spect to the purposes of the voyage. To this end he 
secured a considerable company of artisans, representatives 
of the various handicrafts, whose work, as he foresaw, would 
be greatly in demand in the Indian Colonies. As to the 
merchandise of the cargo, the same was selected according 
to the experiences gained during the former voyage. It 
was clear that the natives of the islands thus far visited 
17S 



THE NEW WORLD. i;9 

v.ere all beguiled with showy trinkets and decorations, 
sucii as aborigines always prefer to articles of more solid 
value. The supply of this variety of commercial trifles was 
accordingly made proportional to the expected demand. 
Indeed the whole cargo was chosen with as m^uch regard 
as possible to the desires and necessities of those people 
whom the Spaniards had visited in the preceding year. 

The reader must not conclude, however, that by this 
time the forces at work in the Spanish nation had become 
too strong and vehement to be controlled, or even success- 
fully directed, by the genius of one man. This indeed is 
the philosophical reason why Columbus rose at this junc- 
ture to the acme of his career. Up to this point he him- 
self had been the directive agency in all that had been 
planned and accomplished. Thus far the work bore the 
distinct impress of his individual genius. But the historical 
forces of the age»now began to seize him and bear him 
away. Hitherto he had contended only with the elements 
of the natural world and the conser\-ative obduracy of man : 
but now a human whirlwind had been started which was 
ere long to become a tornado so violent that the v/ill of 
one was only a feather in the storm. The substitution of 
a general for an individual purpose began to express itself 
in the selection of the crews and colonists of the second ex- 
pedition. The spirit of adventure now rushed in to supply 
the material of the enterprise, and henceforth passion, ca- 
price and lust were to a considerable extent the prevailing 
motives of the movement. 

We must remember, in this connection, the existing con- 
dition of Spanish society. The recent years had been con- 
sumed in war and conquest. The final struggle with the 
Moors had brought into the field the chivalrous and adven- 
turous class of young Spaniards Avho joined the various 
campaigns in the spirit of knights and cavaliers. The 



i8o COLUMBUS. 

motives of the contest were mercenary and fanatical. The 
great province of Granada, with its accumulations of Moor- 
ish wealth and art, was the principal prize. As usual in 
such cases of spoliation and robbery, the spirit of propagan- 
dism and religious zeal was set forth as the reason for the 
conquest. In the case of the suppression and ruin of the 
Jews the same argument was advanced by the zealots of 
Church and State. In such a school it must needs be that 
the graduates would come forth in the character of ad- 
venturers, bigots and robbers. 

The sudden subsidence of the Moorish war thus let loose 
in Spanish society a large element of restless, mercenary 
and half lawless chivaliy, whose motives of action flew low 
and settled over the quagmires of gold, and glory, and 
license. The appearance of a new enterprise, a new and 
startling event like that of the discovery of the Indies, 
must in the nature of the case furnish an occasion and vent 
for the activities and passions of such characters as those 
just described. There was a strong tending of all such 
towards the port of Cadiz, and it was almost impossible to 
prevent the capture of the new squadron by this element. 
Hither came the gold hunter, the soldier out of work, the 
drifting, lawless young nobility, to find opportunity and ex- 
citement by volunteering in an expedition to an unknown 
world. 

There was, moreover, a certain weakness in the character 
of Columbus which made him accessible to the influence of 
mere adventurers and rakes. They crowded around him 
and solicited the privilege of going abroad under his banner. 
They seemed to constitute a part of that world in the 
estimation of which he now held so conspicuous a place. 
Their voice and applause seemed to be but an echo of the 
public homage. To hold them at bay and put them back 
was therefore difificult, and the result was that a considerable 



THE NEW WORLD. i8i 

part of the crew was made up of a class of men who might, 
with much more profit, have been sent on a miHtary cam- 
paign to Damascus or Bagdad, rather than dispatched as 
the first colonists and citizens of Europe to the new hemi- 
sphere. 

It was at this juncture of affairs that the premonitions of 
a break between the Admiral and Fonseca were first dis- 
covered. The latter was a shrewd man of affairs, ambitious, 
cold, calculating, unscrupulous in matters affecting his de- 
signs. His talents might not be doubted any more than 
his jealous and vindictive disposition. He was one of those 
characters whose private manners and individualities were 
carried into his office, where they constituted the main- 
spring of his public life and policy. He was secretive in 
his methods, little disposed to trust his associates, and not 
infrequently perfidious in his dealings with them. When 
he perceived that the popularity of the cause was inducing a 
larger enlistment than had been contemplated, he procured 
an interview with the Queen, at which he interposed his ob- 
jections and began to speak of the additional expense and 
risk thereby incurred. Attempting to introduce obstructive 
tactics, he referred the matter a second time to the sover- 
eigns, but they sent back a mandatory order to Fonseca to 
concede everything to the wishes of the Admiral, to follow 
his directions and second his plans in all particulars. 

It was under these auspices that the fleet of seventeen 
vessels was made ready in the harbor of Cadiz. The sup- 
plies requisite for the voyage were drawn for the most part 
from military stores which had been left over from the 
Moorish war. The summer months were consumed with 
the preparation, and it was not until late in September that 
the armament was complete. Pains had been taken to fur- 
nish the ships with capable and zealous officers. Some of 
the best pilots in the kingdom, noted at that epoch for the 



i82 COLUMBUS. 

superior skill of its mariners, were put at the helm. Co- 
lumbus himself was captain-general of the squadron, and his 
commission was so full and absolute as to leave no question 
respecting his authority, whether on the voyage or at the 
destination. 

Many noted and some highly picturesque characters were 
members of the expedition. Pope Alexander had taken 
full cognizance of all that was done and planned respecting 
the enterprise. He deemed it well that an emissary from 
the Papal Court should be on board as the representative of 
the interests and supremacy of the Church. For this oflfice 
a certain Benedictine monk, named Bernardo Buyl, was 
chosen as apostolic vicar for the Indies, and to him the 
other prelates and ecclesiastical officers, eleven in number, 
were commanded to be obedient. The vicar was himself a 
man of large affairs. He had been ambassador to the Court 
of France and was fully conversant with the international 
relations of Europe. On coming to Spain he demanded 
and received from the court a supply of Church materials 
and paraphernalia, such as he deemed necessary for the 
establishment and maintenance of the faith in the New 
World. The other ecclesiastics, of higher or lower rank, 
went as his companions and coadjutors in the project of 
establishing Catholicism among the people of the Indian 
islands. 

After the Benedictine monk the most famous person that 
accompanied Columbus was his best friend, the devoted 
friar, Juan Perez, to whose influence was so largely due the 
equipment of the first expedition, and to whom Columbus 
and their Majesties were alike indebted. The good father 
sailed on the Maria Galante (Gracious Mary), and was thus 
in the company of many other distinguished persons, 
among whom may be remarked Gil Garcia, alcaid-major ; 
Bcrnal Diaz de Pisa, lieutenant of the controllers-general ; 



THE NEW WORLD. 183 

Sebastian de Olano, receiver of the crown taxes ; the astron- 
omer, Father Juan Perez de Marchena ; the physician-in- 
chief, Doctor Chanca ; some hidalgos; Melchor Maldonado, 
a cousin to the cosmographer of that name ; and two bap- 
tized Indian interpreters, one of whom had as godfather 
the brother of the Admiral, and was called after his name, 
Diego Colon. There also was seen, as a simple passenger, 
the estimable Francisco de Casaus, better known under the 
name of Las Casas. His son, Barthelmy, whom his ardent 
love for the Indians ouglit one day to immortalize, was then 
pursuing his first studies at Seville. 

There was also with the expedition the famous young 
chevalier, Don Alonzo de Ojeda, destined to enact so im- 
portant a part in the primitive annals of the West Indies. 
Of him the student of American history may form an ade- 
quate idea from his likeness in character, life and adventure, 
to Captain John Smith, of Virginia. The parallel is in 
every particular marked and striking, with the exception of 
the diversity of the two characters in moral honesty. 
Ojeda had the same element of daring and romance, of 
rash courage, of needless hazard and skill of extrication, 
which have made the name of Captain Smith so notable in 
our colonial history. In the case of Ojeda, his faulty educa- 
tion, and the prevailing immorality of the day, had contrib- 
uted to mar his conscience and to make him unscrupulous 
in obligation and duty. But for the rest he was the proto- 
type of Smith. 

Ojeda was a cousin to that other Alonzo de Ojeda who 
was the inquisitor-general of Spain. He was a soldier and 
adventurer from boyhood. He had fought with the infidels 
in the Moorish war, and had acquired the reputation of un- 
exampled reckless daring and audacity. In person he was 
below the medium height, lithe, sinewy, agile as a lynx, 
with lustrous black eyes, complexioned like an Arab, the 



i84 COLUMBUS. 

best rider in the army, generous with everything, never 
happy except in action, most pleased in a fight, with a 
temper — Hke flint and steel — blazing and then cold, a 
born leader, loving hazard for the sake of it, and never 
safe except in danger. Happy had it been for Colum- 
bus if this audacious and restless spirit had been left in 
Spain. 

The departure of the squadron was set for Wednesday, 
the 29th of September, 1493. The embarkation was made 
on the preceding day. Now it was that the greater number 
of that additional three hundred passengers of whom we 
have spoken managed to get on board. Some of them did 
so with the consent of the Admiral. Others were smuggled 
into the ships by the privity of friends. Quite a number 
managed their own cause of adventure, and were presently 
found as stowaways when the ships stood out to sea. The 
fleet weighed anchor in the early morning. The sun had 
not yet risen to witness the spectacle ; but the whole Span- 
ish coast, from the mouth of the Guadalquivir to the bay 
of Trafalgar, was on the alert for the great event. 

No stronger contrast could be well afforded than that be- 
tween the departure of this second squadron and the going 
forth of the first. Every circumstance of the two occa- 
sions seemed to have been altered by some good genius 
from darkness to light. Glory had come to take the place 
of despondency ; universal applause took the place of uni- 
versal caviling and grief ; power was substituted for weak- 
ness, and eagerness and zeal for gloom and mutiny. The 
three little ships constituting the Admiral's fleet had be- 
come an armada. The meager equipment and doubtful 
i.ssue had been replaced with abundant stores, and the con- 
fident outlook of certainty. Instead of the wailing and dolor 
of the panic-stricken people of Palos, the multitude of Cadiz 
and the surrounding country gathered with glad applause 



THE NEW WORLD. 185 

to the shore to cheer and shout farewells to the fortunate 
adventurers. 

With the break of day the harbor was literally covered 
with all manner of craft swarming around the ships, till the 
water was darkened with boat-loads of living beings. They 
whose friends were going on the great expedition counted 
themselves happy to be thus linked with its destinies. The 
Admiral himself was the focus of all compliments and 
plaudits. He took his station on the flag-ship, the Maria 
Galante, and before sunrise gave the order to weigh anchor. 
A favoring wind had sprung up from the shore as if nature 
herself was eager to join her impulses with the endeavors 
and hopes of the human race. As the sails filled and the 
vessels began to move, the hundreds of boats that had 
darkened the harbor fell back to the shore. The Admiral's 
two sons, who had come to share the hour of their father's 
triumphant departure, went down last of all from his ship, 
waved their boyish farewells from the water, and were rowed 
to land. All the shores round about, from the point of St. 
Sebastian to the little island of La Caraccan, were black 
with people. The water of the bay was as blue and placid 
as the sky; both earth and heaven seemed to drop a bene- 
diction on the departing fleet. 

The squadron proceeded under fair winds over the same 
course which Columbus had taken on his first voyage, 
reaching Gomera, one of the islands of the Canaries, where 
he took on some necessary supplies of wood and water, 
and also added to the cargo a herd of sheep and goats, be- 
sides a variety of domestic fowls for the new colony which 
he expected to plant in Hispaniola. 

On the 7th the fleet weighed anchor and continued the 
voyage, with the Maria Galante, Columbus' flag-ship, in 
advance ; but though they had departed under a fair wind, 
before they had gone two leagues they fell into acalm which 



tS6 COLUMBUS. 

detained them a period of six days. During all this time 
they continued in sight of the harbor whence they had last 
departed ; but catching at last a favorite wind, the fleet con- 
tinued in a southwestward direction, until reaching a point 
which Columbus reckoned to be due east from the island 
of Hayti, he set his prows directly towards the west, caught 
the trade winds, and by avoiding the Sargasso Sea, which 
had before caused such great detention, he made a quick 
voyage across the Atlantic. 

On the 2d of November signs were perceived indicative 
of the near approach of land. The breezes became capri- 
cious, the sea changed color, and the waves, losing their 
regular swell, began to assume the choppy appearance of a 
bay. With the coming dawn of Sunday, November 3d, 
anticipations were verified by the sight of bold outlines of 
an island lying directly to the west, to which, in honor of 
the day, Columbus gave the name of Dominica. Before 
the ships anchored, however, three other islands were dis- 
covered, and it was perceived that the ships were in the 
midst of an archipelago 600 miles southeast of San Salvador. 
The joy which was infused into the hearts of all who had 
accompanied the expedition was so great at the auspicious 
termination of the voyage that they united in an anthem, 
solemnly chanted, as an expression of their gratitude to 
Heaven. 

Coasting about the shore of Dominica without finding 
any safe anchorage or discovering signs of natives, the 
fleet bore away to the north a short distance, until presently 
another island was seen whose striking features betrayed its 
volcanic origin. Upon this shore a landing was effected, 
and several of the members of the expedition made a short 
journey into the interior, where they discovered a mountain 
peak hollowed in the center, which had become the basin 
of a large lake fed by living springs, and which, overflowing, 



THE NEW WORLD. 187 

formed a cataract pouring down in foaming spray over a 
lofty precipice. In honor of the monastery in Estrema- 
dura, Columbus gave to the island the name of Guadaloupe. 

A farther advance towards the interior by several of the 
bolder spirits of the expedition revealed an inland town, 
but from which the inhabitants had, on the approach of 
their visitors, hurriedly fled to the forest. In their precipi- 
tate flight several of the natives left their children behind, 
which the Spaniards captured and hung about their necks 
many gewgaws, hoping thereby to attract the parents, but 
this attempt to open an intercourse with the islanders 
failed, for not one appeared to ascertain what fate had be- 
fallen the captured children. The only difference noted 
between these natives and those with whom Columbus had 
formerly come in contact was in the character of the vil- 
lage. The houses which the Spaniards now found were 
square instead of circular, and some of the better kind were 
supplied with porticos. The most singular thing discovered 
at this village was a sort of pan for frying and boiling, and 
which the Spaniards claimed was of iron. The curiosity of 
this piece of native workmanship was found in the fact that 
no specimen of this metal, whether wrought or native, 
had been seen in the western islands, and the Spaniards 
could only account for this utensil upon the assumption 
that it had been wrought, by some art of the Indians, from 
meteoric stone. But there was also discovered a section of 
the mast of a ship in one of the village houses, which, if 
it had been driven by the trade winds from the coast of 
Europe, would supply another means for accounting for the 
iron pan, since if a mast could drift so great a distance, 
other portions of a wreck might do likewise, bearing articles 
of European manufacture of which the natives would pos- 
sess themselves. 

There was yet another circumstance still better calculated 



i88 COLUMBUS. 

to fix the attention and at the same time excite the repug- 
nance of the Spaniards. It was in this village of Guada- 
loupe that they first discovered the ravages and wrecks of 
cannibalism. Human bones were plentifully scattered 
about the houses. In the kitchens were found skulls in use 
as bowls and vases. In some of the houses the evidences 
of man-eating were still more vividly and horribly present. 
The Spaniards entered apartments which were veritable 
human butcher-shops. Heads and limbs of men and women 
were hung up on the walls or suspended from the rafters, 
in some instances dripping with blood, and, as if to add, if 
that were possible, to the horror of the scene, dead parrots, 
geese, dogs and iguanas were hung up without discrimina- 
tion or preference with the fragments of human bodies. In 
a pot some pieces of a human limb were boiling, so that 
with these several evidences it was manifest that canni- 
balism was not an incidental fact, but a common usage, well 
established and approved in the life of the islanders. 

Subsequent investigation showed that Guadaloupe was 
the center and stronghold of the Carib race, and of the can- 
nibal practice. The contrast afforded in the persons and 
characters and manners of these savages with the mild- 
natured natives of the Bahamas was sufficiently striking. 
The Caribbeans were large, strong, full of action, cour- 
ageous, and especially vindictive. The man-eating usage 
had its laws and limitations among them. They did not, 
as did some of the South Pacific islanders, eat their own 
people. The anthropophagous habit had a strict relation 
to war. The Caribs ate their prisoners — men, women and 
children, especially the men. 

It was from this habit that the warlike nature of these 
aboriginal desperadoes took its impulse and vehemence. 
War was made by them, systematically, for the purpose of 
securing droves of prisoners with which to satisfy the crav- 



THE NEW WORLD. 189 

ings of a horrible appetite. The usage was as well founded 
and as customary as was that of the North American In- 
dians in the buffalo hunt or the bear hunt. With the Caribs 
it was a man hunt. The men were all warriors and were 
generally abroad in their capacity of man-hunters. They had 
fleets of canoes, and in these the warriors took to sea, pad- 
dling away to the coast of a distant island or shore, and there, 
by sudden descent upon some village, seizing the inhabit- 
ants and carrying them away as captives. When the pris- 
oners were brought home the better class were at once 
slain and eaten, but the remainder were turned loose in the 
island until they should be in better condition. The Caribs 
looked upon these prisoners just as a less brutal savage scans 
his flocks and herds in expectation of the day for slaughter 
and feasting. 

It is not difificult to discover in these circumstances the 
origin of the myth of the Amazonian Islands. The natives 
of the Bahamas and the Greater Antilles, and as far south 
as Porto Rico, on visiting the coast of the Caribbeans, saw 
only women. The men were abroad, plying their vocation 
of war. From this fact the belief would gain currency that 
certain islands were inhabited only by women. In this 
shape the tradition existed among the Guanahanians and 
Cubans when Columbus arrived among them. 

The reactionary effects of cannibalism were sufficiently 
marked in the character and manner of the Caribs. They 
were fierce to the last degree, strong as tigers, courageous in 
fight, brutal and merciless. The women had the same char- 
acteristics as the men. The Spaniards soon learned the 
danger of a contest with the Amazons of these islands. 
Even the children were as young beasts ready for the prey. 
It was noted by Columbus that the natives took delight 
in making themselves appear as terrible as possible. To 
this end they painted their faces, putting great circles of 



190 COLUMBUS. 

bright color around their eyes, thus skillfully increasing the 
ferocity of the visage. Another usage was to tie cotton 
bands above and below the principal muscles of the arms 
and legs, by which, when the body was in action, the 
muscles were made to bulge out in prodigious knots. In 
short, every method known to savage ingenuity for increas- 
ing the fear-inspiring features of face and body was employed 
by the cannibals of these islands. 

Strangely enough, the Caribs were more civilized in some 
respects than the islanders of the northwestern clusters. 
The former had the more extensive improvements. Their 
chief town was laid out with a square in the center. The 
better class of houses had porticos. Roads were surveyed 
with some regularity, and were better constructed than 
those of Cuba or Hispaniola. The people had some rude 
notions of the confederative principle in government. 
Guadaloupe was the center of a league which included at 
least three of the principal islands. The natives were ex- 
pert in the practice of their rude industries, particularly in 
the management of their canoes. In these they did not 
hesitate to commit themselves to the open sea, even to a 
distance of hundreds of miles from their native coast. 

Resuming the narrative, we note during the stay of Co- 
himbus in Guadaloupe the first of many distressing inci- 
dents which he was now destined to encounter. Bands of 
men were frequently sent ashore to make explorations, but 
always under strict orders as to plan and conduct. One 
company of eight men, under Diego Marquez, captain of one 
of the vessels, went abroad without leave. After an absence 
of a whole day the party failed to reappear, and the Ad- 
miral grew uneasy. Other companies were sent out to 
find the missing men, but returned with no intelligence of 
them. Signals were made and guns fired, both from the 
ships and on the shore, but there was no response. Trum- 



The new world. 191 

petei"s were sent to the neighboring cliffs to sound the re- 
turn, but still there was no answer. With the following day 
the search was continued, but no vestige of the men could 
be found. The belief might be well entertained that they 
had been caught, killed and eaten by the islanders. It was 
hoped, however, that since the warriors were for the most 
part absent on an expedition, the Spaniards might be able 
to defend themselves against the women. The Admiral was 
unwilling to sail away while the fate of his sailors, or any one 
of them, was undetermined. In this emergency he bethought 
himself of the daring and courageous Ojeda. That adven- 
turer was accordingly given a company of volunteers and 
sent into the interior of the island to scour the country in 
all directions in the hope of rescuing the missing party. The 
expedition of Ojeda must again remind the reader of some 
of the similar exploits and services of Captain John Smith. 
His excursion about the island was not only a search, but 
an exploration. He noted in his progress from place to place, 
through the dense native woods, over the hills and along the 
verdant valleys of the interior, the unexampled luxuriance 
of the vegetation, the abundance of fruits, the fertility of 
the soil, the odorous balm of the woods, and in particular 
the abundance of wild honey. But the stragglers could not 
be found. 

Several days elapsed, and the necessity for continuing 
the voyage was imminent, when unexpectedly the missing 
sailors appeared on the shore. It transpired that upon 
plunging into the forest they had lost themselves. Their 
senses had become confused, and they had wandered on 
farther and farther through impenetrable thickets and over 
ledges of rock, crossing unknown rivers, tearing their clothes 
away in patches on brambles and thorns, totally unable to 
regain the points of the compass or to imagine the direc- 
tion of the ships. At last, when about to perish, they had 



192 COLUMBUS. 

come to the coast, and following it for a short distance, had 
the good fortune to spy the vessels when they were just 
about to weigh anchor. The joy of all at the recovery was 
great ; but the indignation of the Admiral against the captain 
for his disobedience of orders was such that he had him put 
under arrest, and the whole company were reduced in their 
rations as an exemplary punishment for their recklessness 
and insubordination. 

Their stay on Guadaloupe Island lasted for six days, when 
the voyage continued northward through the Leeward 
cluster, several of which were named, among the number 
being the little island of Nevis, on which, two hundred and 
sixty-four years later, was born a great character, whose 
profound and lucid genius, more than that of any other 
man, contributed to the Constitution of the United States 
— Alexander Hamilton. 

Farther on the expedition reached Santa Cruz and Santa 
Ursula. At the former island a pause was made to re- 
plenish the store of water, as well as to make a casual ex- 
amination of the country. The company sent ashore found 
a Carib town which was held by women and boys, no men 
being seen. It was found that many of those in the settle- 
ment were captives who were awaiting their turn to be killed 
and eaten. Several of these were taken with little resist- 
ance on their part ; for to them it was small matter by 
whom they were to be devoured. While returning to the 
shore to embark with the captives, the Spaniards perceived 
a boat load of Caribs paddling around the headland not far 
away. For a moment the Indians seemed paralyzed with 
wonder, and the Spaniards in their boats were able to get 
between them and the shore. Here upon the Caribs, taking 
the alarm, seized their bows and sent a shower of arrows 
among their adversaries, at least two of whom, at the first 
discharge, were seriously wounded. It was noticed that 



THE NEW WORLD. 193 

some of the women in the boat were as expert with the bow 
as the men. The Spaniards held up their bucklers, and 
bearing down upon the canoe, overturned it in the water ; 
but the Indians continued to fight, swimming and discharg- 
ing their arrows at the same time. Some found a lodgment 
on rocks and reefs in the shoal water and were taken with the 
greatest dil^culty. At length all were captured, including 
a woman and her son, who seemed to be the queen and the 
prince of the tribe. The latter was thought by the Spaniards 
to be the fiercest specimen of a human being they had ever 
beheld. They described him as having the face of an Afri- 
can lion. Though wounded, his conduct was defiant in the 
last degree, and he scowled upon his captors with such a 
hideous expression of hatred as to send through them a 
shudder of terror. It was found, or believed by the Span- 
iards, that the wounds which they received in the skirmish 
were inflicted by poisoned arrows. One of the Spaniards 
soon died from his injury, and his body was afterwards con- 
veyed by the Admiral to San Domingo for burial. 

Around Santa Ursula the Admiral discovered a rocky 
archipelago, the summits rising here and there to consider- 
able heights and constituting a group of islands, some of 
which were luxuriant and others sterile and bare. Sailing 
in this cluster was difificult and dangerous, and the explora- 
tion of the group, to which the Admiral gave the name of 
the Eleven Thousand Virgins, was made by a single light 
caravel which made its way through the tortuous channels 
between the fifty or more islands that were sighted, some 
of which at least were inhabited by men of the Carib race. 

Still farther to the Avest and north the squadron reached 
a larger island, nearly in the form of a parallelogram, lying 
under the latitude of 18° N. This was called by the na- 
tives Boriquen, but was named by the Admiral San Juan 
Baptista, that is, St. John the Baptist, and is known in 
13 



194 COLUMBUS. 

modern geography as Porto Rico. Here the fleet made its 
way out of the Carib Islands and found a modified native 
population such as belonged to Cuba and the Bahamas. 
The aborigines of Boriquen were not so warlike and roving 
as the true Caribs, and on account of their peaceful disposi- 
tion suffered much at the hands of the cannibals. Along 
the coast, where the latter were in the habit of making 
their incursions, the natives of the island were more cour- 
ageous, having learned from their adversaries the use of 
the bow and the war club. According to common fame 
they sometimes revenged themselves on the Caribs by de- 
vouring such captives as fell into their hands. But the 
body of the inhabitants were a peaceable folk, subsisting 
on fruits of the soil and fish. 

After a considerable stay at Porto Rico, Columbus, having 
satisfied his curiosity respecting the Caribs, set sail direct 
for Hispaniola, the western extremity of which he reached 
without further incident. His return to the island was 
greeted with much rejoicing by the natives who had seen 
him or heard of his previous visit. Four caciques, accom- 
panied by hundreds of Indians, came off in canoes to the 
ships, and besought the Spaniards to make a permanent 
camp on shore, promising to lead them to mines of gold, 
where the precious metal might be easily gathered in the 
greatest quantities. But Columbus had heard such stories 
so frequently before tliat he was not to be deceived by 
them now, so. after distributing presents among the chiefs, 
he continued towards Natividad, which he was now anxious 
to reach and learn how the affairs of the colony, which he 
had there planted nearly one year before, were progressing. 
He accordingly sailed along the coast and entered the Bay 
of Samana, where he had had his first encounter with the 
natives of the New World. Anxious to renew his inter- 
course with the people, the Admiral sent out one of his 



THE NEW WORLD. I95 

Guanahanian interpreters, finely clad and laden with pres- 
ents. But, strangely enough, the man did not return. Nor 
was the Admiral ever able to ascertain what became of 
him. The other Guanahanian, through many vicissitudes, 
past and to come, remained stanch in his loyalty to Co- 
lumbus, accompanying him wherever he went, proud to re- 
ceive and bear the baptismal name of Diego Colon, the 
Admiral's brother. 

By the 25th of November the fleet reached Monte 
Christo and anchored there, while the coast was surveyed at 
the mouth of Gold River in search of a site for a fortress. 
Here it was that the first indications were discovered of those 
dire disasters which now began to rise and darken the path- 
way of Columbus during all the remainder of his life. 
While the exploring party were traversing the shore, they 
found a human carcass tied by the wrists and ankles with a 
Spanish cord to a stake in the form of a cross. Also near 
by was the body of a boy. Both cadavers were in such a 
state of decay that it could not certainly be known whether 
they were Spaniards or Indians. But the significant cross 
pointed to the suspicion that they were Europeans, and if 
so, certainly men of the colony of Natividad. The sign 
of crime was therefore sufBciently portentous. 

This horrible discovery proved to be indeed only the 
precursor of worse things to come. On a further examination 
of the coast, two other bodies were found, and though these 
also were reduced to little more than grinning skeletons, 
one of them was discovered to wear a beard. This told the 
story. The victim had certainly been a Spaniard. The 
indications of violence and death were well calculated to 
awaken the most serious apprehensions in the mind of Colum- 
bus respecting the state of affairs in the island. He was, 
however, much cheered. by the conduct of the natives, who 
acted in a manner so frank, so little indicative of treachery, 



196 COLUMBUS. 

that he could but hope everythiiifg might still be well with 
the men whom he had left under De Aiana in the fort. 

Within two days from leaving Monte Christo, the fleet 
arrived at the anchorage of La Natividad. The hour was 
late in the evening, and a landing was impracticable until 
the morrow. It was hoped, however, that notification 
might be given to the colony by the firing of a cannon. 
But the reverberations died away, and no response came 
from the fortress. About midnight, however, an Lidian 
canoe came near the squadron and the natives shouted for 
Columbus. They were directed to the Maria Galante, but 
would not go on deck until the Admiral himself was seen 
by the lamps at the railing. Then their caution was dis- 
missed, and they were taken up, and found to be an em- 
bassy from Guacanagari, the leader being a cousin of the 
cacique. As usual in such matters, they brought presents, 
the principal one being two masks eyed and tongued with 
gold. 

But the Admiral was far more concerned about other 
matters than of the things of which they chose to speak, 
and he eagerly inquired of the Indians what had become of 
his garrison — why they did not answer to his signals. At 
this the natives were somewhat embarrassed ; but they 
managed, by means of the interpreter, to tell a tolerably 
consistent story. They said the Spaniards under De Arana 
had a quarrel and fight among themselves, in which several 
lives were lost, and that sickness had carried off quite a 
number. Others still had married native wives and settled 
in distant parts of the island. But worse than this, they 
gave an account of an invasion of the province of Guacana- 
gari by the warlike Caonabo, cacique of the gold regions 
in the mountains of Cibao. He with a strong band had 
burst into the village of their chieftain, had slain many, 
wounded many more, and burnt the houses. Among the 



THE NEW WORLD. I97 

wounded was Guacanagari himself,who, but for his injuries, 
would have come at once to the Admiral. The reason for 
this onset was that the friendly cacique had sought to protect 
the Spaniards from the rage of Caonabo, who had gone 
to war with them on account of their conduct towards him 
and his people. Whether any of the Spaniards remained 
alive the messenger did not say. 

Morning came, bringing with it the greatest anxiety. 
On looking out towards shore the Spaniards could perceive 
no signs of life. Instead of the native multitudes, only 
the waving trees were seen along the coast, and only the 
light murmur of the surf was heard as it fell and broke 
among the rocks. Meanwhile Columbus had entertained 
the Indian embassy, and before the coming of dawn had sent 
them ashore laden with presents. They had gone promis- 
ing to return during the day and bring Guacanagari with 
them. 

The only circumstance calculated to relieve the despond- 
ency and fears of the Admiral was the fact that the natives 
seemed to be friendly and unconscious of wrong-doing. 
During the forenoon a boat-load of Spaniards was sent 
ashore to ascertain definitely the situation. Fort Natividad 
was in ruins. It appeared that the place had been carried 
by assault, broken down, and the remnant burnt. Fragments 
of the contents of the fort were scattered about, and these 
relics included shreds of Spanish garments, presenting a 
scene of death and desolation. With these grueful relics 
before them, they could no longer doubt that the worst of 
calamities had befallen Arana and his men. As for the 
natives, they carefully kept aloof. Though a few were seen 
hiding in the woods at a distance, not one came near to 
explain further the destruction of the fort and its occu- 
pants. 

When these tidings were borne back to the Admiral he 



198 COLUMBUS. 

was in the greatest distress, and went directly on shore to 
examine the ruins of the fort himself. Unable to gain any 
clew as to its destruction and the disappearance of his men 
at the first examination, he deemed it expedient to make a 
more systematic search. Possibly some of the Spaniards 
might still live, and it was not inconceivable that a band of 
them, driven from the fort, had kept together and defended 
themselves until Caonabo and his warriors had retired to 
their own place. Several companies were accordingly dis- 
patched into the neighboring districts to search for any 
possible survivors of the disaster. The men went abroad 
firing their guns, shouting and blowing trumpets ; but the 
only sounds that came back were the echoes from the woods 
and rocks, and wave-beats of the sea. 

As for Guacanagari, he did not come, nor was any mes- 
sage sent by him to explain his absence. The Admiral at 
length concluded to seek him out, and accordingly advanced 
to the cacique's village, which, to his grief, he found burnt to 
ashes, and the same marks of violence about its ruins as had 
been found at Natividad. The conclusion seemed necessary 
that the town of the cacique, as well as the Spanish fort, 
had been taken and destroyed by the warriors of Caonabo. 
This circumstance, while it tended to dispel all hope of 
finding Arana and his men, seemed to establish the belief 
that the tribe of Guacanagari had remained loyal to the 
Spaniards. 

The Admiral was so much concerned to know the truth 
that, returning to the coast, he renewed his investigations 
about the ruined fortress. He had given directions to 
Arana in case he and the garrison should be imperiled, to 
bury in the earth treasures which they had accumulated. 
In the hope of finding some trace of the property, the well 
of the fort was examined, and the whole region round 
about, but there was no sign that these instructions had 



THE NEW WORLD. 199 

been obeyed, and the search was therefore continued along 
the coast. 

On the coming of the Spaniards to a native village not 
far away the inhabitant fled, leaving their houses to be ex- 
amined by the invaders. Here were found several articles 
which had belonged to the garrison, among which were an old 
anchor of the Sa?ita Maria and a Moorish cloak which was 
remembered as the property of De Arana. There were also 
several articles of clothing and bits of merchandise, pointing 
unmistakably to the spoliation of the fortress. In the 
meantime another company of explorers, nearer to Nativi- 
dad, had found a kind of burial-place, from which they 
recovered the remains of eleven of their companions, thus 
strengthening the belief with overwhelming proof that all 
had perished by violence. 

It was with the greatest difificulty that Columbus could 
induce the natives to a renewal of intercourse. Nor could 
their conduct in this particular be well understood. If the 
subjects of Guacanagari were innocent, why should they 
keep aloof and exhibit such want of confidence ? On the 
other hand, if they had not been loyal, how account for the 
destruction of the village of the cacique and his own wounds? 
The problem became an enigma, and there was great diver- 
sity of opinion among the Spaniards. De Buyl, the apos- 
tolic vicar, led the belief that all the Indians alike had been 
treacherous, and that the Admiral should proceed to pun- 
ish them for their crime. He framed a theory that the 
cacique had burned his own village to conceal his perfidy — 
that the conduct of the natives could be explained only on 
the ground that they were crafty barbarians who well knew 
the awfulness of the crime that they had committed and 
dreaded retributive justice. 

Columbus, however, was entirely unwilling to accept 
this disheartening and pessimistic view of the situation. He 



200 COLUMBUS. 

chose to believe that the work had been done by Caonabo 
and his people, and this conviction was accompanied by 
the well-grounded fear that the Spaniards had, by their own 
misconduct, brought the fatal visitation on themselves. 
With the progress of the investigation, the disconnected 
facts were slowly and imperfectly put together until a fairly 
reasonable story of the destruction of Arana and his com- 
pany was produced ; and the conclusion was of a kind to 
brand with shame and infamy the first settlement of white 
men ever planted in the New World. 

It appeared in the sequel that as soon as the colony was 
established and the Admiral had sailed away, the true char- 
acter of the colonists came out with dreadful realism. The 
men whom Columbus had brought with him on his first 
voyage to the West Indies were, as we have said, for the 
most part, of the lowest order. They had been roustabouts 
and criminals in the Spanish seaport towns, and, as the 
reader knows, had in many instances escaped impending 
penalties by embarkation through impressment. Such char- 
acters could but await the removal of authority to seize the 
combined freedom of barbarism and the viciousness .of civ- 
ilization. 

It was in vain that De Arana had sought to curb and 
restrain the will and passions of his colonists. Finding that 
they could not be subjected to discipline by any force 
which the captain could exert, they at once abandoned 
themselves to the license of outrage and excess. Every 
evil impulse which for generations, although restrained 
under the compressive tyranny of despotic government, 
had been transmitted with accumulating vehemence from 
father to son, now burst forth in the depraved descendants. 
They turned upon the mild-mannered Indians who had 
befriended and assisted them in every way to gain a foot- 
ing and maintenance in the island, and began to treat them 



THE NEW WORLD. 201 

as though they were the mere instruments of their avarice 
and lust. They sallied forth from the fort against the ex- 
press commands of the Admiral, and contracted licentious 
alliances with the native women, whom they refused to 
leave even when ordered by Arana, and indulged in a riot 
of debauchery horrible in its details. 

Guacanagari had sought to appease the fury of Spanish 
passion by granting to each sailor two or three wives. But 
even this was not enough. The wretches, glorying in their 
license, became like wild beasts, assaulting and seducing 
the wives and daughters of the head men of the tribe, and 
as if their crimes inspired greater lawlessness, they began 
to despoil the villages, carrying home therefrom great loads 
of merchandise and provisions. In a few days the fort was 
converted into a robbers' camp, and presently the men fell 
to quarreling, brawling and fighting over the spoils, some- 
times to the death. Others remained abroad, preferring 
the company of the native women. But a few, deprived of 
what they considered their share, began to form conspir- 
acies. Pedro Gutierrez became the head of one band and 
Rodrigo de Escobedo of another. These two, being sub- 
ordinate officers in the fortress, mutinied against the com- 
mander, and in a fight which took place on that account 
another Spaniard lost his life. 

The party of Arana had been victorious, and Gutierrez 
and Escobedo left Natividad for another part of the island. 
The remainder, composing a company of eleven, besides 
some native women whom they had taken as wives, set out 
for Cibao, to gather gold. In a short time they passed the 
boundaries of the district ruled by Guacanagari and entered 
the territory of Caonabo, the great cacique of Maguana, to 
whom the Spaniards had given the name of Prince of the 
Golden House. Subsequent investigations showed that 
this warlike chieftain was a native Caiib, who had come as 



202 COLUMBUS. 

an inviider into Hispaniola and there established himself 
with his headquarters in the gold regions. 

The invasion of his territories by a mere handful of 
Spaniards could have but one result with the cacique. 
When the band of Gutierrez and Escobedo approached 
Cibao and began to ply their trade of getting gold, Caonabo 
sent out his warriors, who surrounded them and killed the 
last man of the company. The cacique then made a league 
with the neighboring chieftain of the province of Marien, and 
the combined forces of the two tribes were sent into the 
province of Guacanagari, to besiege the Spanish fortress and 
sweep it, with its garrison, from the face of the earth. The 
invasion was carried on with secrecy. The course pursued 
by Guacanagari is not certainly known ; but it appears that 
he tried, at least formally, to defend the Spaniards from the 
enemy, for it can hardly be doubted that the village of the 
friendly cacique was burned, and that some of the Span- 
iards who were there at the time were killed in the attack. 
The hostile barbarians then crept upon the fort, where all 
precaution had been abandoned, and rushed in at a time 
when the garrison numbered only ten men. Two of these 
were killed, and the other eight fleeing from their pursuers 
plunged into the sea and were drowned. Not a man was 
left alive to tell the story. The fortress was sacked and 
bnrned, and the hostile warriors, after thus glutting their 
vengeance, returned to their own district. 

It seems that after the withdrawal of the enemy, Gua- 
canagari knew not what to do. Perhaps he doubted his 
ability to make things clear on the return of the Admiral. 
Perhaps he feared that when the great fleet came, he and 
his people would be overwhelmed in a common ruin by the 
vengeful foreigners. Possibly at heart he had felt some 
emotions of sympathy with the work of extermination 
which had been accomplished by the men of Cibao. In 



THE NEW WORLD. 203 

any event the situation was trying in the extreme. It 
would seem that the cacique had not the confidence to 
commit himself without reserve to the good faith of the 
Admiral, and in his embarrassment, doubtless to save him- 
self and his subjects, he adopted that subterfuge to which 
half-barbarous minds naturally resort in times of danger. 

One circumstance tended strongly to convince even the 
Admiral that Guacanagari had been guilty of duplicity. It 
was claimed by the Indians who came as ambassadors from 
their cacique that he was prevented from visiting the Ad- 
miral by the injuries which he had received while defending 
his village against the attack of Caonabo. Columbus pres- 
ently set out and found his friend at a new village which had 
been extemporized for him not far away. The cacique, 
sure enough, lay in his hammock, surrounded by his wives, 
and unable to rise, on account, he said, of his wounded leg, 
which he claimed had been struck with a stone and so in- 
jured that he could not stand. The limb was bandaged to 
a great extent, and Columbus ordered his own surgeon, 
who was present, to examine the injury and see what could 
be done to relieve the chief. The bandages were accord- 
ingly taken off, and though the cacique made grimaces and 
complained of pain when the limb was handled, no trace of 
the alleged injury could be found, and this fact produced 
the natural suspicion that the wound and his story of it 
were a sham invented for effect. 

Other warriors of the tribe, however, were found to have 
been really wounded, presumably by the arrows of the 
enemy ; and of a certainty the cacique's village had been 
burned. All things considered, Columbus decided to give 
Guacanagari the benefit of every doubt, and so, exhibiting 
no signs of distrust, he bestowed on the chieftain the usual 
gifts and went away. At this De Buyl was again greatly 
offended, for to him the evidence of guilt was so clear that 



204 COLUMBUS. 

he urged the Admiral to take a summary vengeance on the 
cacique, making him an example to all other offenders. 
But this counsel was rejected, and for the time amicable 
relations were maintained between the Spaniards and the 
natives. 

The difference of opinion and policy between Columbus 
and the vicar was the commencement of a difificulty destined 
to become important. Buyl had in him the very soul of a 
persecutor, and nothing could have pleased him better than 
to see the head men of the Indians burned at the stake, as 
his favorite method of introducing the new religion which 
he came to represent. It is an interesting historical study 
to see the contest between the vindictive spirit of this man 
and the humane disposition of the commander. But pass- 
ing from this, we note the conduct of the latter in inviting 
Guacanagari, in spite of the suspicions against him, to visit 
the Maria Galante and share the hospitalities of his board. 
The act was one of kindness and policy also ; kindness, for 
by this means he sought in a generous way to restore the 
confidence of the chief ; policy, for he desired him to look 
upon the Carib prisoners whom the Spaniards had on board 
as warnings of what might be expected by all who durst 
attack or oppose the whites. The whole cargo of wonders, 
including the horses, swine and goats, was also shown to 
the cacique, to accomplish a similar purpose. 

But human nature is always human nature. The barba- 
rian, or half-barbarian, is ever of his own kind. Among the 
other subjects which the cacique found on the Admiral's 
ship was a company of captives from Porto Rico ; that is, 
they were liberated captives, whom the Caribs had taken 
and the Admiral recovered. With these Guacanagari began 
to converse by means of an interpreter. Among the rest 
was a queenly native woman called Catalina, with whom, 
as the sequel showed, the cacique fell violently in love. 



THE NEW WORLD. 205 

He conversed with her as much as possible in the lover's 
manner, and would fain have taken her on shore, but the 
opportunity was not presented until the following night, 
when the queen escaped by swimming ashore, and the next 
day Guacanagari disappeared, having eloped with the wo- 
man, so that neither was again seen by the Spaniards. 



CHAPTER X. 

If Columbus had been affected by such adversities as 
crush the hopes of other men ; if his enthusiastic and won- 
drously imaginative nature had not sustained him in every 
ordeal that wrings the heart with despair ; if the sun of 
hope and confidence had not remained always visible above 
the horizon of his life, the world would have preserved no 
remembrance of his living. A nature that would have 
halted at obstacles would have bowed with despondency 
before such persecution as he received at the hands of Por- 
tugal's ruler ; but enduring these, the rejections of his pro- 
posals by Genoa, Venice, and by two learned Juntas, as well 
as the derision of ecclesiastics, would surely have driven any 
less persistent man to accept the hopelessness of his ambi- 
tions. But bearing up against all these opposing influences, 
like a vessel whose engines have sufficient power to hold her 
against the current, he bravely held on, continued on, until, 
behold, the reward of his unyielding activity is a glory that 
kings might crave. 

The man who bared a resolute front to all the oppositions 
that obscurity, poverty, antagonisms and ridicule could offer 
was not to be daunted even by the discouraging aspect which 
a murdered colony presented. Hopeful as he was persistent, 
Columbus was not awakened from his dreams of conquest 
by the dreadful fate of those whom he had established as 
the nucleus of a vast commercial power, which he believed 
would expand in influence until it accomplished the Chris- 
tianizing of the world of his discovery. The first seed had 
206 



THE NEW WORLD. ^o; 

perished even as it lay in the ground, but he would now sow 
again and trust for a more favorable season. The first colony 
had wrought its own destruction, perhaps a second would be 
successful, and with this sanguine, trustful feeling he set 
about the planting of a settlement either above the graves 
of those who had fallen victims to their lustful, seditious 
and avaricious appetites, or to establish a colony near by, 
where there might be constant reminder of the fate of those 
who had subordinated virtue and honest duty to selfish greed 
and the basest desires of human nature. 

After the first excitement of the landing, despondency 
ensued, and the men began to realize something of the pro- 
saic character of the enterprise in which they were engaged. 
Worst of all, they found that labor was a necessity of their 
situation. Houses would not build themselves. The fort- 
ress would not grow without human effort. Nothing could 
be accomplished on this virgin shore, any more than else- 
where, without strenuous exertion of mind and body. Here 
it was not merely a question of exciting adventure incident 
to the gathering of golden sands from the banks and beds 
of impossible rivers. Toil, toil, was the order, and all alike, 
cavaliers and soldiers though they were, must bend to the 
appointed task. 

Again the situation can but impress the mind of the reader 
by its likeness to the founding of Jamestown by the English 
a hundred and fourteen years afterwards. Thus came disap- 
pointment and gloom instead of the exhilaration of ideal 
enterprises, and this fact tended to aggravate the diseases of 
the colonists. 

Columbus, as we have said, felt his strength ebb away. 
He may have perceived — for the greatest minds are given to 
such intuition — that the golden but visionary schemes which 
had passed before his imagination, and which he had im- 
parted to the King and Queen, lay farther away in their 



2o8 COLUMBUS. 

realization, and were to be reached by a rougher road than 
any which his feet had ever yet traveled. Moreover, the 
sorrows and weaknesses of old age were now coming upon 
him, and he could hold up no longer. No sooner had the 
preliminaries of the settlement been determined upon than 
his faculties of body and mind succumbed to the sore pres- 
sure, and for several weeks he was confined to his couch. 
During part of the time he was able to give directions for 
the prosecution of the work of laying out, building, fortify- 
ing and planting ; but for the rest, the enterprise must be 
remanded to the hands of his subordinates. Whenever this 
was done, confusion began to reign as the result of cross 
purposes and lack of talent. It was thus under dismal aus- 
pices that the eventful year 1493 ended with small prospect 
that the Admiral would be able, in his first report to his 
sovereigns, to meet the glowing expectations which his own 
over-sanguine temperament had given rise to at the court. 

By the opening of the following year, all the materials of 
the fleet had been transferred to the shore, and there was no 
further need of the squadron. It had been predetermined 
that after the planting of the colony the greater number of 
the vessels should be sent back to Spain. It had also been 
intended by Columbus that these returning ships should be 
laden with the merchandise and treasures which he expected 
his colony of Natividad to gather during his absence. The 
disappointment in this respect was overwhelming. De 
Arana and his garrison had not only gathered nothing, but 
had lost all, including themselves — a melancholy awakening 
from delightful dreams. 

The second voyage had thus far been an expedition of 
discovering and mere planting. No commercial intercourse 
had been opened or renewed with the native islanders. 
Indeed such a condition of unfriendliness and distrust now 
prevailed that it was doubtful whether any profitable trade 



THE NEW WORLD. 209 

could again be established with the Indians. But it was 
necessary to freight the ships with something, if only with 
an additional cargo of golden dreams. To this end the 
Admiral was constrained to rouse himself from his enfeebled 
condition and to prepare his report to his sovereigns. As 
in the case of all men of genius, his active mind foreran the 
event, and he sought to find in the surroundings such ele- 
ments of success as might be truthfully wrought into a suit- 
able report to gratify their Majesties. 

To this end the Admiral deemed it expedient to send out 
exploring parties, two of which were organized and dis- 
patched into the gold country. The first of these was put 
under the command of Alonzo de Ojeda. To him nothing 
could have been more agreeable than the responsibility of 
an expedition into the mountains of Cibao, or, missing that, 
into the mountains of the moon. The other company was 
placed under a Captain Gorvalan, a cavalier of like disposi- 
tion with Ojeda, but less adventurous. Both parties went 
out full-armed into the country of Caonabo, expecting to 
fight their way to the mines, which they were directed to 
examine and explore, to the end that Columbus might faith- 
fully inform their Majesties as to the probable gold yield of 
the island. 

It required but two days to reach the hill country. On 
the third morning the gold fields were approached, and to 
the astonishment of the Spaniards the Indians of the district 
were not only friendly but familiar. They welcomed the 
strangers as brethren, fed them, lodged them, aided them 
in every way to carry out their purpose. The formation 
of the island in this part was as peculiar as it was beautiful. 
The gold mountains constituted a range of moderate height, 
beyond which lay a plain traversed by many streams and 
occupied with numerous villages and a large population. 
Crossing this plain, the adventurers came to a second ridge, 
14 



210 COLUMBUS. 

out of which the rivers gathered their waters. This was the 
mining district ; but there were no mines. Nevertheless the 
signs of gold were sufificiently abundant, for the sands of the 
running streams glittered here and there with particles of the 
precious metal. Specimens of these sands were taken up 
and the gold gathered out with little difficulty, while some of 
the Spaniards were so fortunate as to pick up pieces of con- 
siderable weight. 

Here, then, the secret was out. It was clear that the 
specimens of gold dust which the Spaniards had procured in 
other parts of the island, and farther north, had been derived 
from these mines of Cibao. But everything was in the 
native condition. Ojeda very properly concluded that the 
yield of the precious metal, as shown in the river sands, was 
but a hint of the rich, perhaps limitless, treasures of the 
mountains. He accordingly surveyed the landscape and 
carried back to the Admiral a glowing report. The expedi- 
tion of Gorvalan had a similar result. That captain had also 
discovered the gold countr}^ and had gathered specimens 
from the sands and returned with a cheering account for the 
Admiral, Thus, while Columbus was not able to send home 
a cargo of treasure, he would fain transmit a glamour of 
visions and hopes. 

It was under these conditions that the discoverer now 
prepared his report for the King and Queen. He determined 
to retain five ships from the squadron for his own use in the 
service of the colonists, and in prosecuting the work of 
discovery. The remaining twelve were put under command 
of Antonio de Torres for the return voyage. As for treasure, 
he was able to send nothing except the specimens of gold- 
bearing sand which his lieutenants had gathered about 
Cibao, and to add some additional samples of the animal 
and vegetable products of the island. His report was of 
course the principal thing, and this, while it contained an 



THE NEW WORLD. 2ii 

account of the disaster which had befallen the garrison of La 
Natividad, of the sickness to which he and the colony had 
been recently subjected, and some complaints, well founded, 
of frauds and blunders committed by the home bureau in 
the preparation of the cargo and provision of the squadron, 
nevertheless glowed with the usual enthusiasm and promise 
of great things to come. 

The document was prepared with his accustomed elabora- 
tion, embracing a report proper and many recommendations 
which the Admiral took the responsibility of making to the 
sovereigns. Some of these suggestions were of a kind to 
show forth in full sight not only the sentiments and opinions 
of the discoverer and his sovereigns, but also the general 
civilization in that age. Fortunately the document has been 
preserved to our own time, and the curious inquirer may still 
read not only the words of the Admiral, but the marginal 
comments which the sovereigns appended to each clause of 
the report. In the first place the Admiral opens with those 
formal and complimentary addresses which were the style 
in the fifteenth century, and even at a much later date, in all 
documents directed to royal personages. To these the King 
and Queen made on the margin this remark : 

" Their Highnesses hold it for good service." 

In the next place the Admiral gives an enumeration of the 
circumstances of the second voyage up to date, including 
an account of the various islands which he had discovered 
and visited, and finally of the planting and establishment of 
the colony of Isabella. To this the sovereigns affixed the 
co-marginal comment : 

'•Their Highnesses give much thanks to God, and hold as very honored 
service all that the Admiral has done." 

In the third paragraph he tells of the ill fortunes that had 



212 COLUMBUS. 

come, explaining how his men had fallen sick, how the new 
plantation had been delayed, how it had become necessary 
to detail a considerable number of soldiers to guard the 
settlement from possible attacks by the natives, and how, 
for these reasons, he had been unable to gather and send 
home with the cargo any products or treasures worthy of 
the work. To this clause the sovereigns wrote in the margin 
the simple words : 

" lie has done well." 

In the fourth place the Admiral went on to suggest the 

best means of gaining possession of the gold mines of Cibao. 

To this end he recommended that a fortress be built in the 

gold-producing regions, and that it should be garrisoned and 

held that the mines might be systematically worked. To 

this proposition the sovereigns also gave their approval as 

follows : 

" This is well and so it must be done." 

The Admiral next proceeded to discuss the question of 
provisions for the new settlement, until such time as the 
products of the island, including new crops to be raised 
and gathered by the colonists, should be sufificient to render 
unnecessary all further draft on the mother country. This, 
too, received the approval of royalty with the marginal com- 
ment, thus : 

" Juan de Fonseca is to provide for this matter." 

In the next place Columbus proceeded to touch the deli- 
cate subject of the frauds and blunders that had been com- 
mitted in the purchase and preparation of supplies for the 
squadron and the colony. This part related most of all to 
the wine which the bureau had supplied for the expedition. 
Very soon after the sailing of the fleet it was discovered 
that the wine-casks were old and leaky, and before the end 
of the voyage much of the supply had been wasted. Con- 



THE NEW WORLD. 213 

cerning this complaint the marginal comment of the sov- 
ereigns was as follows : 

•' Juan de Fonseca shall find out the persons who played this cheat with the 
wine-casks, that they may make good from their own pockets the loss, and 
also see that the sugar-canes (for the colony) are good, and that all that is 
here asked for be provided immediately." 

We have already remarked above how greatly Columbus 
was distressed — how sensitive he was — relative to the failure 
of the expedition thus far to yield any profitable returns. 
He knew well enough that profit was expected. Indeed, that 
had been with the sovereigns the prevailing motive, and it 
is likely that glimpses of a probability had now reached the 
Admiral's judgment that the treasures of gold he had been 
seeking were still far remote. It was, therefore, expedient 
that he should, if practicable, divert the minds of their 
Majesties to some other enterprise, promising great and 
immediate advantages. 

It is possible, therefore, or probable, that the next sug- 
gestions of his report were in part, at least, the result of a 
wish to point the royal mind to a new method of commer- 
cial gain. Or it may be that he conscientiously believed 
the recommendations made to be philanthropic and humane. 
The thing which he suggested in the next paragraph was 
based on a policy which he had on his own responsibility 
adopted with respect to the Caribs. The reader will recall 
the fact that while cruising among the cannibal islands 
Columbus seized a number of the natives and retained them 
as prisoners. These he now sent to Europe with the return- 
ing squadron, recommending to the sovereigns that the 
islanders should be taught Spanish, be baptized into the 
Church, and that they be retained as slaves to serve as in- 
terpreters, or be made useful in other ways. He called 
attention to the fact that such a measure would be a just 
punishment for the Caribbcans, and that it would tend to 



214 COLUMBUS. 

inspire confidence in the other islands, where the people 
lived in dread of the cannibals. Of course the Admiral 
laid much stress upon the religious feature of the sugges- 
tion, insisting that the proposed subjection of the cannibal;; 
was to their own interest as well as to the benefit of Spain 
and the advantage of the whole colonial enterprise. But 
to this recommendation there was entered on the margin a 
guarded reply of the sovereigns, as follows: 

"Their Majesties think this very well, and so it must be clone; but let the 
Admiral see whether it cannot be managed there that they (the Indians) 
should be brought to our Holy Catholic faith, and the same thing be done 
with the Indians of those islands where he now is." 

Having thus opened the way, Columbus proceeds boldly 
to the general suggestion of the enslavement of the natives 
as the best means of making them Christians, and of gather- 
ing profit by new commercial relations that might be estab- 
lished on the foundation of a trafifie in human beings. Tlie 
Admiral suggests that the ships in the Indies could be laden 
with cargoes of natives, who might be exchanged in Spain 
for live stock and other supplies requisite for the purposes 
and development of the colony. The policy should be 
adopted by the Indian Bureau of sending out a fleet each 
year bearing all things demanded by the colonists, and 
the vessels, as soon their cargoes could be discharged in the 
Indies, might gather an equivalent cargo of Indian slaves. 
It was necessary that this policy should be at once adopted 
and that the answer of the sovereigns should be transmitted 
by Antonio de Torres to the Admiral, so that the latter 
might proceed to capture the requisite ship-loads of canni- 
bals for the return voyage. The project was sufficiently 
audacious and cold-blooded, being redeemed only from ab- 
solute shame and contempt by the intermixture of religious 
motives, real or fictitious, which the Admiral pleaded in 
justification of his proposals. In view of the situation the 



THE NEW WORLD. 215 

reader at the close of the nineteenth century will notice the 
reply of the Spanish sovereigns with peculiar interest : 

" As regards this matter, it is suspended for the present until there come 
some other way of doing it there, and let the Admiral write what he thinks 
of this." 

Certainly it was to the honor of Ferdinand and Isabella 
that they refused to adopt the suggestions made by their 
favorite, as to establishing a slave-trade in the West Indies. 
Whether or not they were moved thereto by reasons of 
justice and humanity, or whether they detected in the prop- 
osition elements of trouble and inexpediency, it would be 
difficult to say. A careful reading of their answer and 
comment would indicate that while it was deemed inex- 
pedient to begin the enslavement of the Indians, there 
was nevertheless a reluctance on the part of the sovereigns 
to pronounce the interdict. They put it from them with 
such gentle kind of veto as Caesar employed in rejecting 
the crown. The sarcastic comment of Casca might almost 
be repeated and applied — at least to Ferdinand, whose 
cold and subtle disposition we may discover in the language 
of refusal : " He put it by ; but for all that to my thinking 
he would fain have had it. . . . He put it by again ; but 
to my thinking he v/as very loath to lay his fingers off it." 

The proposal of Columbus was brought to the sovereigns 
in a very practical and emphatic way. The Carib prisoners 
were put on board the fleet and dispatched to Spain as the 
earnest and first fruits of the enterprise. The monarchs 
were told that a system of royal revenue might be estab- 
lished by laying a duty on the slaves imported. In a word, 
the thing proposed was to be profitable to everybody ; 
profitable to the colonists, for by this means their energies 
might be exerted in the excitement of slave-hunting, and 
at the same time their resources augmented by the supplies 
and merchandise to be brought from Spain in exchange for 



2i6 COLUMBUS. 

the captives; profitable to the people of the mother country, 
for in this way they would obtain at cheap rates a full 
retinue of servants forever ; profitable to the merchants, 
for their cargoes would, under such a system, be expedi- 
tiously provided on both sides of the Atlantic ; profitable 
to the sovereigns, for hereby the royal revenue could be 
steadily replenished ; profitable to the Caribs themselves, 
for by the blessings of capture, deportation and sale, they 
would be rapidly civilized, saved from their sins and through 
all their sufTerings be brought to Heaven. The inhuman 
fallacy was complete in all its parts and needed only the as- 
sent of the sovereigns to make it pass as the greatest civil- 
izing argument of the age. 

The returning squadron, under command of Antonio de 
Torres, left San Domingo on the 2d of February, 1494. 
Other communications from leading characters were added 
to that of Columbus, generally corroborating his report and 
repeating his recommendations. Such was a letter from 
the apostolic vicar De Buyl, and such were the reports 
made by Ojcda and Gorvalan respecting their explorations 
in the mines of Cibao. On the whole, the information which 
the fleet was to bear back to Europe was of a kind to 
make up in a large measure for the disappointment in 
the matter of merchandise and gold. Thus, at the close 
of the winter the home-bound armada dropped out of sight, 
and the colonists of Isabella were left to resume and prose- 
cute the necessary enterprises of the settlement. 

By this time the Admiral had recovered somewhat his 
wasted energies, and with returning strength he devoted 
himself to the administration of affairs. Never was govern- 
ment more difficult. The distraction of the colonists be- 
came extreme. Sickness increased rather than abated. Pro- 
visions began to fail, and the fare was as scant as the work 
was incessant. The Admiral established laws for the govern- 



THE NEW WORLD. 217 

ment of the colony, but these could hardly be enforced, for 
the character* of perhaps a majority of them forbade the 
operation of wholesome rules for all. 

Many of the men were of high rank by both birth and 
profession. There were young hidalgos who had never be- 
fore been obliged to stoop to toil. There were courtiers 
from Barcelona, and functionaries whose immemorial business 
it was to live by the labor of others. The viceroy could 
make no exceptions in the application of his laws, and sullen 
rage and vindictiveness soon appeared among those who 
were compelled, as they thought, like slaves, to toil in build- 
ing houses and fortifying the town. Some began to com- 
plain of the Admiral and his government. Discontent grew 
rife, and conspiracy soon builded its nest and hatched its 
dangerous brood. 

Now it was that the celebrated Bernal Diaz, of Pisa, a 
man of rank and influence, but of a low grade of moral 
principle, appeared as the leader and mouthpiece of the 
malcontents. In him all the Adullamites of the island dis- 
covered a vent for their rage against the Admiral. He 
held the appointment of comptroller of the colony, and in 
this office he soon showed his disagreeable and seditious 
spirit. In the gloomy days which came down after the 
departure of the squadron for Spain, Diaz conceived the 
project of virtually destroying the enterprise by secret mu- 
tiny. His scheme contemplated the seizure of the ships, or 
at least most of them, and a departure from the island with 
all on board who desired to return home. The leader had 
persuaded himself that all this discovery of the Indies, and in 
particular all the representations made by the Admiral re- 
specting the resources of the islands and their commercial 
importance to the Spanish government, were fallacious, mis- 
leading, and in short without foundation in fact. It was 
believed by the conspirators that on reaching Spain they 



2i8 COLUMBUS. 

could appeal to the sovereigns, having Bernal Diaz — himself 
a man .of the court — for their spokesman, and easily per- 
suade them that they had been duped, deceived and ca- 
joled by the foreign Admiral, who had gained an unmerited 
ascendency in their confidence. 

While this perfidious business was still in the egg an- 
other factor was added to the cabal. A certain Fermin 
Cedo. who was the assayer of the colony and. as the sequel 
showed, a charlatan, ignorant of the work he professed, 
joined himself with Bernal Diaz, and encouraged the mutiny 
with a false statement respecting the gold product of the 
island. He declared that the reports relative to the mines 
of Cibao were without foundation ; that nothing more than 
a few scattering particles of the precious metal had been 
found by the explorers ; that the better specimens — small 
ingots and the like brought home by the exploring party, 
or procured in trade with the natives — had been produced 
by melting down a quantity of the gold-dust, and that such 
specimens signified nothing in the general estimate. He 
also alleged that much of the reputed gold was spurious, being 
nothing more than macasite. or some sucli mineral. Since 
the hopes of the colonists were centered on mining and the 
gathering of precious stones, these declarations of the as- 
sayer prevailed with many, even against the testimony of 
their own senses. 

The occasion seemed auspicious for the success of the 
scheme. The Admiral was again confined to his couch by 
sickness. The conspirators might avail themselves of this 
fact and get away without discover\'. Nevertheless the 
thing was borne at length to the ears of Columbus, and he 
was enabled to nip the project in the bud. Bernal Diaz. 
Cedo and several other leaders of the mutiny were seized 
and put under guard on the vessels. A search instituted 
bv the Admiral brough.t the whole thing to light. The plan 



THE NEW WORLD. 219 

of the enterprise, including the report which the conspirators 
were to make to the Queen and King, drawn up in the hand- 
writing of Bernal Diaz, was discovered, and the whole sedi- 
tion was thus suddenly delivered over to the master. 

It was the first time in which anything had occurred of 
such a character as to make punishment a necessity, Co- 
lumbus deemed it prudent, however, not to proceed against 
Diaz himself, but to remand him, with all the proofs, to the 
Spanish authorities. The leading mutineer, with several 
others, was accordingly confined on board one of the ships 
until such time as they might be sent to Spain for trial. 
Other precautionary measures were taken against the possible 
revival of the sedition. All the guns, munitions and supplies 
of the fleet were transferred to a single ship, and this was 
put in command of officers known to be devoted to the in- 
terests of the Admiral. The measures were salutary enough, 
and the effect was marked by some immediate improvement 
in the discipline and progress of the colony. But it was noted 
by the Admiral himself that the wounds and alienations pro- 
duced by the event could not be healed. Confidence was 
never again fully restored among the colonists of Isabella, 
and the cloud began to settle on the Admiral which was never 
to be lifted. 

With the recovery of his health Columbus deemed it 
expedient to prosecute at least two of the general objects 
for which the enterprise had been undertaken. The first of 
these was to continue the work of exploration. In order to 
understand the strong motive for the immediate enlargement 
of the borders of discovery in the Indies (as they were sup- 
posed to be), the reader must recur to the intense rivalry 
existing between Spain and Portugal. The decision of the 
Pope had been against the latter power; that is, the decision 
had been in the nature of an interdict against Portuguese en- 
terprise towards the west. Put there was nothing to hinder 



220 COLUMBUS. 

— indeed, much to encourage — the endeavor of the Portu. 
guese mariners to reach the Indies by the eastern route. 

This question had continued uppermost in Spain and 
Portugal, leading at length to the discovery of a water route 
by the east to India, which was found by De Gama four 
years later. A knowledge of Portugal's activity and ambi- 
tions was therefore a spur to Columbus to accomplish, as 
quickly as possible, the full possession, by discovery and 
occupation, of the rich Pagan countries of the east. But 
while thus eager to anticipate the Portuguese he entertained 
a project having a local significance, though it was a prelim- 
inary step towards the attainment of his larger ambitions. 
Accordingly, Columbus acquainted Ferdinand and Isabella 
with his proposal to enter the gold fields of Hispaniola, and 
take permanent possession of them by the erection of a fort. 
As his purpose was to thereby establish a local government 
at Isabella, thus enabling him to proceed to the accom- 
plishment of his other mission, their Majesties promptly 
approved his plans. 

As soon, therefore, as he had succeeded in suppressing 
the sedition of Diaz, the Admiral issued an edict commit- 
ting the government of Isabella, as well as the command of 
the ships in the harbor, to his brother, Don Diego, and a 
council of municipal officers by whom he was to be advised 
and assisted. 

Having made these preparations at Isabella, the Admiral 
proceeded at once to organize his expedition for the gold 
region. To this end he selected about four hundred of the 
well and able-bodied colonists, preferring the young and ad- 
venturous. The movement involved the arming of the 
whole band ; for, in the existing state of things, the loyalty 
of the natives, how much soever manifested, could not be 
depended on under trial. In fact, the object of the expedi- 
tion WHS as much military as it was industrial, 



THE NEW WORLD. 221 

It was on the I2tli of March that the equipment of the 
cavalcade was complete, and the march began. To such 
men as those composing the regiment action was every- 
thing. They rejoiced to be once more freed from the ser- 
vility and lethargy of the settlement. It was like going 
again on a campaign in the Moorish war. The start was ac- 
companied by all the demonstrations and spectacular scenes 
peculiar to the age and the race. The greater number were 
organized as a cavalry brigade. They were armed, and for 
the most part armored, cap-a-pie, and rode out with their 
lances and shining helmets, and clumsy but formidable 
arquebuses, which at intervals they discharged, making the 
green woods ring with the unfamiliar music of musketry. 
Meanwhile many natives, drawn after the cavalcade, like 
curious boys following in the wake of a menagerie, hung 
around the expedition, joining in the advance as much as 
they were permitted to do, and seemingly well content at 
the strange invasion of their country. 

For the first day or two of the advance, the route lay 
through a somewhat broken and difficult country, rising 
from the sea-level, but still bearing the matted thickets and 
heavy forest of the coast. At length the way became dif- 
ficult, and it was necessary to widen the path for the in- 
vaders. A company of advanced guards and pioneers was 
accordingly organized, and for this service the young no- 
blemen, now aroused from their apathy and discontent, 
gladly volunteered. In honor of their endeavor, the Ad- 
miral gave to their new military road — the first high- 
way opened by European hands in the New World — the 
name of El Puerto los Hidalgos, that is, the Pass of the 
Hidalgos. 

After this preparation the expedition, following the route 
already explored by Ojeda, reached the crest of the ridge 
dividing the province of Caonabo from the territory of th'!: 



222 COLUMBUS. 

coast-people. It was the first of many such situations 
which we shall see repeated in the adventures and campaigns 
of Europeans in the New World to the time when, in the 
summer of 1847, the invading army of the United States 
looked down from the rocky heights of the Cordilleras upon 
the valley of Mexico. Before the Spaniards stretched the 
beautiful plain of Cibao. According to the estimate of Las 
Casas it was two hundred and forty miles from east to west, 
and as much as thirty miles in breadth, a region capable under 
such culture as that of the Netherlands of supporting several 
millions of inhabitants. At the time of the invasion, how- 
ever, only Indian villages, scattered sparsely over the land- 
scape, were seen. 

This vision of a beautiful and marvelously fertile valley 
might, in other more refined and appreciative minds, have 
suggested vast cities, peaceful populations and blessings of 
a splendid civilization, but the Spaniards were so besotted 
with vice and avarice that they could consider it only for 
its possible mineral productions ; for the gold that might lie 
hidden in the river sands and in the mountains that reared 
their heads high into the region of cloudland. They ac- 
cordingly descended into this delightful valley, called by 
Columbus Vf^-a Real, the Royal Plain, and set their way 
across it towards the gold-bearing mountains. 

In traversing this beautiful district orders were given, on 
approaching the first village, to enter after the manner of a 
cavalry charge. So the trumpets were sounded, the banners 
shaken out, and the Hidalgo horsemen rode forward, their 
armor flashing in the sun. The people of the plain had 
never before seen horses, and to their astonished and credu- 
lous gaze the oncoming of the cavalry seemed as a charge of 
armored centaurs might have appeared to the early in- 
habitants of the Grecian archipelago. 

In the face of such an apparition, there was of course no 



THE NEW WORLD. ^23 

show of fight. Cokimbus failed to discover in the towns 
of Vega Real those bands of fierce warriors whom, accord- 
ing to report, Caonabo had led in the preceding year against 
Guacanagari and Fort Natividad. On the contrar}'-, the 
Indians of this region seemed almost as timid as their fellows 
of the coast. They fled before the Spaniards, some escap- 
ing into the woods and others taking refuge in their houses. 
It was a matter of amusement to the Spanish soldiers to 
see the simple natives building flimsy barricades of cane- 
reeds across the doors of their huts. The obstructions were 
not such as to have impeded the charge of a ram, and yet the 
Indians seemed to think themselves safe from assault be- 
hind their wicker defences. The Admiral gave orders to 
humor the natives in all particulars ; and it was not long 
before their confiding disposition showed itself in familiar- 
ity and free intercourse. As the expedition advanced, the 
natives of the town thronged around the army, and the 
usual traffic was begun. The Indians had a keen percep- 
tion in discovering the thing most desired, and before reach- 
ing their destination the Spaniards were able to procure 
considerable quantities of gold-dust. 

On the second day Columbus discovered a river which 
proved to be the headwaters of the Rio del Oro, but here 
the country became so rough that farther progress had to 
be made on foot, up the sides of lofty foot-hills, which had 
now been reached. In small streams falling down the 
mountain-sides glittering particles of gold were found, and 
this discovery determined Columbus to build here a fort, 
the point being sixty miles from Isabella. A suitable loca- 
tion was quickly found on a fine plateau around which two 
small streams uniting formed almost a circle. No sooner 
had the expedition halted than jasper, lapis lazuli, amber 
and other valuable products were found, and a profitable 
trade was opened with the Indians, who freely exchanged 



2:24 COLUMBUS. 

ingots of gold, weighing as much as an ounce, for any bril- 
liant gewgaw that was offered them. 

After great labor a fort of considerable strength was 
built and named St. Thomas, the ruins of which are still to 
be scon. Being now placed in a good state of defense, 
Columbus sent out an exploring party under Juan de 
Luxen to traverse the surrounding country. He was 
accompanied by Indian guides who showed him where gold 
was said to abound, but though signs of the precious metal 
were often seen in the beds of small streams, it was not dis- 
covered in any place in considerable quantities. 

After a stay of two weeks at St. Thomas, Columbus 
returned to Isabella, leaving a company of fifty-six men to 
serve as a garrison, but stopped on the way at the village of 
Vega Real to purchase from the Indians a fresh supply of 
food. He was here enabled to make a study of the social 
condition of the natives and to note the character of their 
agriculture, and marveled at the fecundity of the soil, which 
seemed to produce as if by magic. But on reaching Isabella 
his wonder in this sameparticular was increased by what had 
developed during his absence. He found the plantation, 
which had been laid out scarcely more than one month 
before, already yielding ripe melons, pumpkins, cucumbers 
and fruits in extraordinary abundance. 

Drought and barrenness were unknown. Moisture per- 
vaded the teeming surface of the earth, and the genial 
sunshine caused it to produce in abundance. The addition 
of new fruits planted by themselves gave delight to the 
colonists, and the first bunch of Spanish grapes, blushing to 
purple in the caresses of the tropical air, was a prevision of 
the coming day of wine and plenty. The Admiral could 
but be delighted with the outlook, and for a few days he 
was again happy and exuberant in hopes. 

But it was not long until misfortune returned. A 



Etching by Russell. 



Si. '1 

SACRIFICE OF SPANISH PRISONERS ON THE AZTEC TEMPLE. 



The most tragic incident connected with the conquest oi Mexico by 
Cortez is here pictured. During the siege of the Mexican Capital. Guate- 
mozin, the Emperor, perpetrated a strategy whereby a number of Spaniards 
were taken prisoners, and these he determined to sacrifice on the temple 
pyramid. This remarkable structure was of stone rising out of a plain, and 
the summit was reached by a flight of steps ascending the four sides. At 
each of the corners were altars, upon which burned the sacred fire, 
while in the centre were colossal idols. It was upon the summit of this 
pyramid, large enough to accommodate one thousand men, the sacrificial 
stone was placed, and upon this bloody stone forty Spaniards were bound 
and their hearts cut out for offerings to the sun-god. 



1 



THE NEW WORLD. 22$ 

rncssep.ger arrived from Fort St. Thomas with bad tidings of 
the new settlement. The Indians had become first suspi- 
cious and then hostile. They had withdrawn altogether 
from the vicinity of the Spanish settlement, and receded 
from sight in the mountains and forests. It was evident 
that a conspiracy of some kind was ripening. Pedro Mar- 
garite, the commandant, had become alarmed, and requested 
the Admiral to send him reinforcements and supplies. On 
inquiring into the circumstances the latter soon perceived 
the cause of the trouble. It was the old story of Arana and 
La Natividad. No sooner had Columbus retired, leaving 
another in charge of his outpost, than disorder appeared, 
following as a quick result of unbridled license. The soldiers 
began to wander about and inflict injuries and outrages on 
the natives. Wherever they could find gold they took it. 
The old savage nature of the man-beast, recovering its 
freedom, ran hither and yon, devouring like a tiger from 
the jungle. Lust was added to robbery. The Spaniards 
demanded and took the Indian women without waiting to 
inquire whether they were wives, widows or virgins. 

Meanwhile Caonabo, who had held aloof with his war- 
riors, leaving the village folk to get on with the Spaniards 
as best they might, rallied with the evident purpose and 
will of vengeance. It was not likely, however, that these 
manifestations could lead to serious results. No catastrophe 
might be feared in a battle between the natives and the Span- 
ish soldiers, provided always that the latter were under dis- 
cipline. The Admiral sent back to Fort St. Thomas a 
company of twenty men as reinforcements, and also a new 
stock of provisions. Meanwhile he dispatched another 
company to improve and perfect the road between his two 
principal stations in the island. 

At Isabella, though nature seemed to smile, and show- 
ered from her cornucopia all manner of gifts upon the 
13 



226 COLUMBUS. 

colonists, yet on the human side of the problem there 
were sufficient grounds for apprehensiveness and foreboding. 
The sickness prevailing, instead of growing less with the 
advancement of the season, seemed to be aggravated. The 
Spaniards appeared unwilling or unable to adapt themselves 
to the climatic condition. Their excesses told fearfully 
upon their health and spirits. The disease was of the mind 
as well as of the body. Melancholy, despondency, discon- 
tent, sullen moping, and ever>' other ill of the human spirit, 
when once it fell under the dominion of pessimism, tor- 
mented and depressed the colonists with an ever-darkening 
mental cloud. As to ills of the body, there were fevers and 
dysenteries and congestions, and, worst of all, the outbreak 
and prevalence of those horrid diseases which, since the 
epoch of the Crusades, were rapidly becoming at once the 
scourge and the hell of the human race. 

For all this there was but slight remedy. INIedical 
science, in so far as such science exists among men, has 
always adapted itself in practice to a certain environment. 
The physician has, out of the nature of the case, been 
unable to generalize to any great extent beyond the limits 
of that horizon within the boundary of which he has 
familiarized himself with the natural and morbid conditions 
of life. At the close of the fifteenth centurj- medicine 
was still mere empyricism in its crudest form. The Spanish 
doctors who accompanied the expedition were totally un- 
acquainted with the conditions of health and disease in thj 
new lands at which they had arrived. Their supply of 
medicines gave out, and nature, depraved by disease, was 
left to take her course. 

By this time several kinds of provisions were exhausted, 
and it was difficult to procure such diet and such nursing as 
were required for the sick. About the beginning of April 
the supplies were so diminished that the rations of the well 



THE NEW WORLD. 227 

were reduced to almost a minimum, and this circumstance 
added to the discontent and gloom. At last the flour of the 
colony ran out, and the work of grinding new supplies bv 
hand-mills was severe and irksome. To set the Spanish 
soldier — who had fought in the Moorish war and stood near 
the sovereigns when the Islamites came out to deliver to 
them the keys of Granada — to grinding on miserable hand- 
mills, in order to keep himself and his fellows from star\-a- 
tion, was more than human nature could bear without pro- 
testing ; but the Admiral would make no exception, even 
with the priests. He enforced his regulations and discipline 
with a strong and impartial hand, and the result was the 
reappearance of sedition. 

In this instance a head center of the mutinous spirit was 
found in the vicar, De Buyl, who, though a member of the 
council, gave countenance to the malcontents, promising to 
defend them against the exactions of the governor, until 
the latter, discovering the infidelity and treachery- of the 
priest, reduced him to the ranks and put him on short fare 
as a punishment. This was an unforgivable thing, and the 
vicar was henceforth the enemy of the Admiral and his 
government. But this action did not arrest the fatalities. 
The reader may well be reminded of the starving time at 
Jamestown or the desolation of the first Puritan colonists 
at Plymouth. Under such conditions the leader is blamed 
for ever\'thing. But for him, says the common prejudice, 
we should never have been provoked to leave our homes 
and been led forth into these far lands of fever and scrof- 
ula to die of star\'ation and despair. 

It was in this emergency that Columbus devised the project 
of additional exploring expeditions, rather as a means of 
revival by reaction and excitement than with the expecta- 
tion of great discoveries. The idea of the new enterprise 
was to organize several companies of the discontented \t 



228 COLUMBUS. 

Isabella and to dispatch them on adventures into the interior 
of the island. Many parts, even the greater part, of His- 
paniola had not yet been visited by the Spaniards. No 
intercourse had been opened with at least two of the caciques. 
Besides, the hostility of Caonabo might supply an excuse for 
one of the expeditions. 

The Admiral found, after duly considering his resources, 
that a considerable force of well men still remained for the 
work in hand, and he was therefore able to organize an 
expedition of cavalry, infantry, crossbowmen and arque- 
busiers. For the present, a command was given to Alonzo 
de Ojeda. That officer was to lead the whole as far as Fort 
St. Thomas, when he was to turn over the little army to 
Pedro Margarite, and become himself the commandant of 
the fortress. 

As to the conduct of the expedition, Columbus prepared full 
instructions for Margarite, entering into details respecting 
his intercourse with the Indians and indeed all contingencies 
that might arise. The captain was ordered to hold everything 
in strict military subjection. Provisions should be obtained 
from the natives by public purchase. The comptroller, Bernal 
Diaz, was to act as the commissary officer of the expedition. 
There should be no private trade with the Indians. The 
latter should in all instances be treated with kindness and 
justice. Theft, to which the natives were somewhat addicted 
— though they themselves hardly regarded the act of taking 
without leave as a criminality — was to be properly punished. 
Regard must be had to the conversion of the natives. The 
campaign was to be directed first of all into the country 
where Caonabo had his town. That cacique, against whose 
conduct Columbus had a just resentment, was to be taken 
with his chieftains and delivered over for trial, on account 
of the destruction of La Natividad and the killing of the 
garrison. In the capture of Caonabo, duplicity and stratagem 



THE NEW WORLD. 229 

might be used, the same being among the methods of warfare 
which the Admiral had discovered in the native usages. The 
instructions were amply sufficient for a well-ordered and 
decent campaign of exploration, commerce and the con- 
tingency of war. 

Having completed these arrangements, Columbus next gave 
his attention to a new enterprise of his own. This was no 
less than the long-postponed voyage of discovery, which was 
a part of his general plan. As for the local expedition, Ojeda 
set out from Isabella on the 9th of April, and proceeded by 
water as far as the estuary of Gold River, for the identity 
of that stream with the river found in the Royal Vega, near 
the gold fields, had now been determined, and it was the 
purpose of Ojeda to ascend the stream, first by water and 
afterwards by land, to his destination. This would be an 
easier route than the Pass of the Hidalgos, so laboriously 
followed on the former occasion. 

But an incident now occurred which had in it the germs and 
portent of great mischief. On arriving at Gold River three 
men from Fort St. Thomas fell in with the expedition who, 
according to their story, had been perfidiously robbed by the 
natives; perfidiously, because they were under conduct of the 
cacique of one of the villages of the Vega, who had promised 
to aid them in crossing the river. Thus were they robbed 
by the Indians, and the cacique, instead of punishing the 
Indians, winked at the theft and took a part of the booty 
for himself. 

The hot-blooded Ojeda marched immediately to the 
town, seized the cacique, also his son, the prince, and one of 
the thieves, cutting off the ears of the latter, and sending the 
prisoners, bound, to the Admiral at Isabella. This summary 
punishment produced the wildest alarm among the Indians, 
and the cacique of another village interceded for the captives. 
But all in vain. He then followed them to Isabella and 



230 COLUMBUS. 

appealed to the Admiral. The latter, deeming the robbery 
a serious matter, was unusually severe, and condemned the 
thieves to be beheaded in the public place of the settlement. 
It appears, however, that he intended to pardon the culprits 
in time to save their lives. 

Just at this crisis of the affair a cavalryman arrived from 
Fort St. Thomas, who on the way had found five Spaniards 
held as prisoners by the subjects of the captured cacique. 
He had, however, charged into the village, put the whole 
town to flight and rescued the prisoners. According to his 
report he had chased out of the town all the four hundred 
inhabitants, scattering them in every direction. The incident 
was sufificiently amusing, and also sufficiently significant of 
the relative ability of the natives and Spaniards in open war. 
When the Indian prisoners were brought to the place where 
they were to be beheaded and the friendly cacique Guarionex, 
ruler of the villages of Vega Real, continued to supplicate 
for their liberation, Columbus granted his petition and set 
the captives free. He also sent off Guarionex with many 
presents and evidences of good-will. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Reassured by the peaceful condition of affairs at Isa- 
bella, before leaving that post for the mountain district of 
Cibao, to pursue his quest for gold, Columbus had purposed 
to extend his discoveries, with the hope of ultimately reach- 
ing the borders of Cathay, there to greet the great Khan 
in his resplendent capital of Quainsay. Upon returning, 
therefore, he set about preparations to continue his explora- 
tions, all the while believing that Cuba, three-fourths of 
which coast he had seen, was a part of the mainland adjoin- 
ing the Tartar territory. For this purpose he equipped 
three vessels, one of which was the old Nifia, to which the 
name of Santa Clara had been given, the Sanjtiaii. and the 
Cordera. Fort St. Thomas had been left in charge of a 
lieutenant named Margarite, but during his absence on a 
campaign in the interior, Ojeda was appointed temporarily 
to the command. 

Feeling secure in the arrangements which he had made 
for the occupation of both Isabella and St. Thomas, Colum- 
bus was able to set sail upon his proposed expedition on 
the 24th of April. Proceeding, he made a short pause at 
Monte Christo, but found no natives there with whom to 
open communications, so he moved forward a few miles and 
anchored off La Natividad, where he hoped to see Guacan- 
agari, and to obtain from him, finally, the full particulars of 
the massacre of the garrison under Arana. Though the 
replies of the messenger whom Columbus sent out to meet 
the cacique were favorable, the natives refused to expose 



232 COLUMBUS. 

themselves, and the promise of the chief to visit him was 
not fulfilled, and after a wait of two days Columbus sailed 
away without unraveling the mystery of the cacique's con- 
duct. 

Leaving La Natividad, Columbus continued along the 
southern coast of San Domingo until he came to the west- 
ernmost extremity of that island, where he found a beauti- 
ful harbor, in which he anchored to make some investiga- 
tions on the shore. He found two considerable villages not 
far inland, upon entering one of which a fresh-laid feast 
was prepared, but the natives having been alarmed upon 
the approach of the Spaniards, had left them to enjoy the 
banquet, though without invitation. Subsequently, a few 
of the natives were persuaded to approach the Spaniards, 
iut beyond the giving of a few presents no intercourse was 
attempted. The voyage was then continued until reaching 
the harbor of St. Jago, in Cuba, where a landing for the day 
was made and brief communication was had with the natives, 
who repeated to Columbus the reports which he had before 
heard concerning the rich gold fields of Babeque. The 
repetition of this story was given with such embellishments 
and assurances that he at length decided to test the truth 
of the assertions. Accordingly, on the 3d of May, the 
squadron again weighed anchor, left the Cuban coast and 
drifted into the open sea. The voyage had not extended 
far until the bold outlines of a large island were discovered 
towards the south. On approaching near the shore the 
country was found to be thickly populated, and upon reach- 
ing shoal water a fleet of seventy canoes, all manned by 
warriors who were painted and feathered after the manner 
of North American Indians, came out to meet the ships. 
Their first manifestations were those of implacable hostility 
as the warriors set up a great yelling, and, on coming within 
range, shot their arrows and hurled their darts against the 



i 



THE NEW WORLD. 233 

sides of the vessels, but with such poor effect that the attack- 
appeared ridiculous. 

Instead of regarding the demonstration as an invitation 
to battle Columbus chose rather to make signs of peace and 
to tell the Indians, through his interpreter, that he came 
on a friendly mission and to present gifts to the people. 
This speech assuaged the anger of the natives, who per- 
mitted the ships to come to anchor near the coast of the 
island, which to the present day has retained its native 
name of Jamaica. But as no advantage could be gained by 
an intercourse with the people at this first landing Columbus 
continued his way along the western shore for several miles, 
until reaching an inviting harborage, he anchored with the 
intention of going on shore to make some explorations. 
The natives at this latter place, however, exhibited the same 
hostility that their neighbors had manifested, and were so 
persistent in their determination to do the Spaniards injury 
that as a last resource the Admiral concluded it would be 
necessary to teach them a sharp lesson. To this end a 
boat-load of crossbowmen was sent to attack and disperse 
the Indians ; drawing near, the Spaniards fired a volley at 
the enemy, wounding several ; at the second discharge the 
natives beat a hasty retreat, and on the following day sent 
an embassy of six warriors to treat for peace. Columbus 
accepted their overtures of amity, and the quiet which fol- 
lowed was improved by him to repair his ships, one of which 
was in a leaky condition. During this short stay the native 
Jamaicans seemed to have become convinced that the 
Spaniards were visitors from some far celestial country, and 
from their first hostile feeling there succeeded an idolatrous 
affection, which influenced several of the natives to beg of 
Columbus permission to accompany him whither he might 
choose to voyage. One of the caciques was so determined 
to joip. the Spaniards that some force was necessary to over- 



234 COLUMBUS. 

come his intention. As the fleet was about to sail a young 
chieftain wrested himself from the restraining grasp of his 
friends, and running with all possible speed to the shore, 
sprang into a canoe and paddled off to the Admiral's ship, 
which he gained and hid himself in order that he might not 
be prevented from carrying out his purpose. Columbus re- 
ceived him kindly, and he perhaps lived to see the shores 
of Europe, with other natives of the West Indies who after- 
wards joined him. 

Unable to find any indications of gold in Jamaica, Colum- 
bus departed for Cuba, and without further incident arrived 
at La Cruz, having been absent from Isabella a period of 
fifteen days. While lying at anchor in this latter harbor 
he was visited by many natives, who manifested the same 
friendly disposition as those whom he first met in Hispan- 
iola, and generously supplied the expedition with fruits and 
such provisions as the vicinity afforded. While here Colum- 
bus also learned from some of the natives that the country 
was an island, but of very great extent, so large indeed that 
none of the people with whom he had yet come in contact 
knew its limits. To determine this question Columbus re- 
solved to continue his explorations, but hardly had the voy- 
age been renewed when fate, so long tempted, became sullen 
and adverse, A great tempest swept the bay, and for some 
hours the ships were in imminent peril of being wrecked on 
the rocks : and when they had gained the open sea the 
squadron became entangled in the Cuban keys, out of which, 
on account of the tortuous channels and numerous sand- 
banks, it seemed for a while impossible to escape. The archi- 
pelago into which he had thus sailed was named by the 
Admiral, in honor of Isabella, the Queen's Gardens. 

The storm finally abated without any serious injury having 
been inflicted upon the ships, and the islands through which 
they were sailing offered so many opportunities for interest' 



1 THE NEW WORLD. 235 

ing investigation that Columbus landed on the shores of 
several and was richly entertained by the curiosities of ani- 
mal life which he discovered ; flamingoes, cranes and parrots 
of richest coloring were numerous, thus lending animation 
to the incomparable beauties of the landscape. 

Many of the islands appeared to be without inhabitants, 
while others were thickly populated by amiable Indians who 
received Columbus and his men with the same kindness as 
had characterized those of San Salvador and Hispaniola. 
The Indians on some of the larger islands were seen to em- 
ploy a fish somewhat after the manner that the medievals 
used the hawk in hunting. This falcon-fish, which the In- 
dians used with such singular results, had the power of at- 
taching itself to objects by means of a sucker with which it 
was supplied. Such was the strength of the hold which the 
leech-like creature was able to take that the body might be 
pulled in two without breaking its connection with the ob- 
ject to which it had fixed itself. As if to favor the use to 
which the fish was applied by barbaric ingenuity, it was 
furnished with a long tail, to which the natives attached a 
line ; this done, the creature was allowed to take its own 
course in the water, where it had the instinct to attack sev- 
eral kinds of fish and marine animals. The turtle was the 
favorite object of the pursuit, and however great the size, 
the fish would fix itself so firmly to the flat bottom of its 
prey, that it could be drawn up to the boat by the fisherman, 
only quitting its hold after it was lifted out of the water. 
The fish thus used was the remora, which is very common 
in southern waters. 

Columbus again gained the shores of Cuba nearly one 
hundred miles from La Cruz, where, upon landing, he was 
visited by a subject of a cacique named Mangon. Upon 
hearing the name of this chief Columbus immediately asso- 
ciated it with that of the Mangi, about whom Maudeville 



236 COLUMBUS. 

had written. The natives also informed him that in the 
kingdom immediately adjoining them there lived a people 
who clothed themselves in white to hide their tails, a report 
.identical with that which Mandeville had made concerning 
the inhabitants of Mangi. Believing that he was now near 
the country upon which he had placed his largest hopes, 
Columbus stood westward along the unbroken coast, fre- 
quently stopping to hold intercourse with the natives. Thus 
proceeding across the broad Gulf of Xugua and into the 
White Water Sea, peculiar to that region, the Spaniards were 
greatly astonished and somewhat alarmed at seeing the ships 
moving through what appeared to be an ocean of milk. 

After making their way through another group of small 
islands, the fleet anchored at Point Serafin, and Columbus 
sent a company on shore to procure wood and water. While 
lying here one of the Spaniards wandering some distance 
into the forest was startled — such was his own story — by the 
spirit of a being clad in a long white robe moving solemnly 
along like a Druid priest. Two others came in his train, 
also in white, followed by a considerable guard carrying 
lances. The white-robed priest approached as if for a con- 
ference, but the Spaniard was too much frightened to ascer- 
tain his desire, and ran back to his companions. Upon hear- 
ing this story Columbus was firm in his belief that he was 
very near the kingdom of Cathay, and that ere long he 
would find the civilized people of Asia to whom he thought 
these white-robed persons must belong. Two companies of 
soldiers were accordingly dispatched to investigate the mys- 
tery. One of these came to a great plain covered with reeds 
and marsh-grass growing to such a height as to hide a man 
on horseback. The grass so impeded their progress that 
they were obliged to turn back without discovering the 
priests who had so startled the Spaniard. The other com- 
pany reached a wooded country, where they found the tracks 



THE NEW WORLD. 237 

of some monstrous creature. Their imagination at once 
conceived tlie prodigious outlines of an impossible beast 
(which in fact was probably an alligator), in whose great jaws 
they would all soon perish should they seek a further explora- 
tion of the interior. Without continuing their investigations 
further, therefore, they returned to the coast, bringing back 
no other trophy of their expedition than a large cluster of 
wild grapes. The conclusion was accordingly reached by 
Columbus that the so-called spectral figures which had so 
alarmed the lone Spaniard were nothing more in reality than 
some very tall white cranes moving on the edge of a 
savannah. 

Once again the voyage was resumed until the coast was 
reached some fifty miles further west, where communcation 
was sought to be established with the people, who came off 
in canoes to the ship, and whose speech was unlike that of 
any of the natives with whom the Spaniards had come in 
contact. In the broken communication held through the 
interpreter additional hints seemed to be obtained of the 
proximity of the Tartar empire. Columbus understood that 
in the high-lands far to the west a great king resided. This 
king was clad in white from head to foot, and was such a 
holy man that he would hold no communication with those 
of his kind, but gave his orders by means of signs. What 
should the Admiral think but that now, indeed, he was 
coming to the coast of Tartary, over whose multitudes the 
magnificent Prester John sat in state, surrounded with splen- 
dor and dispensing treasures to his friends? Sure enough, 
in their imaginations, the Spaniards perceived the blue out- 
lines of the delectable mountains rising from the western 
horizon. One of the natives who had told his pleasing story 
was taken along to point the way to the court of the great 
Khan, and the ships proceeded to solve the mystery of the 
Eastern Empire. 



238 COLUMBUS. 

As the voyage continued, the mountains seemed to dis- 
solve in a mist of smoke, and for many leagues the shore 
was a broad sunken marsh where landing was impossible. 
Beyond, the coast assumed its wonted aspect, and bliae smoke 
was observed curling up hither and yon in the distance, and 
the shore-line of Asia was again believed to be near at hand. 
Indeed, so strong were the hopes and so vivid the imagina- 
tion of Columbus at this time that he seemed to see the 
whole of the East stretched before him in a grand panorama, 
revealing the golden Chersonese, the Ganges, the Straits of 
Bab-el-mandeb, and even the Holy Land. He even con- 
templated a visit to Jerusalem, and a return to Spain through 
the Red and Mediterranean Seas ; but in these golden visions 
the sailors had no participation ; seeing the westward trend 
of the coast, they began to offer objections to a further voy- 
age in that direction, since they were well spent with con- 
stant exertion in keeping the ships from the reefs, which 
were so numerous as to be almost impossible to wholly avoid. 
Besides this, the vessels were already in a precarious con- 
dition, from having been run several times on bars in making 
a passage of the Queen's Gardens. Being in a leaky condi- 
tion, their sails were also torn and the cables were so strained 
as to be no longer trusted. Thus, notwithstanding his be- 
lief that the kingdom of the great Khan was very near at 
hand, Columbus was persuaded by the complaints of his 
men to abandon, for the present, his undertaking to reach 
that country. 

As one of the chief objects, however, had been to solve 
the question of the relations of Cuba to the mainland, he 
decided to prepare a statement and affidavit that the country 
which he had now coasted was peninsular in its character, 
jutting out from the east rim of Asia. In pursuance of this 
desire, Fernando Perez de Luna, notary of the expedition, 
drew up such a deposition, which was signed not only by 



THE NEW WORLD. 239 

Columbus but also by all the fifty officers and men compos- 
ing the expedition. Though there was thus obtained a per 
feet unanimity of opinion, Columbus provided that severe 
penalties should be inflicted upon any one of the expedition 
who should thereafter make any denial of this statement. 
The punishments ranged from a fine of ten thousand mara- 
vedis, in case the offender was an officer, down to a whipping 
of a hundred lashes in case of a cabin boy. The place where 
this statement was drawn up and compared was in the Bay 
of Cortez, and, strange to say, a point from which less than 
a two days' sail to the west would have brought him to the 
extremity, and thus proved to his satisfaction the insular 
character of Cuba ; this done, he could hardly have failed by 
an easy voyage through a placid sea to reach the true shore 
of the continent. But the human equation entered in. The 
discontent of his men, his own preconception, cherished for 
more than eighteen months, that Cuba was an outlying part 
of Asia, once more diverted him from the possibility im- 
mediately within his grasp, and turned him back from what 
may well seem to the blind eyes of men the true line of his 
strange destiny. 

This place where the ships were anchored, in the Bay of 
Cortez, was the westernmost point ever reached by the 
discoverer of America. When we consider how near he 
came to discovering that Cuba was an island, that Florida 
on the north was scarcely a day's sail away, and that the 
continent on the west was so near at hand, the fate seems 
hard by whieh the great mariner was projected so far to the 
west without being able to reach the true shore of the New 
World. 

Having, as he believed, established for all futurity the 
continental character of Cuba, regardless of what might be 
its true geographical configuration, on the 13th of June Co- 
lumbus continued in a southeasterly course until he dis- 



240 COLUMBUS. 

cov^ercd another island, to which he gave the r\dmeo[ Ez'an- 
gelista, afterwards known as Isle de las Finos, or Island of 
Pines. Here he took on a fresh supply of wood and water 
and then stood out to sea with the intention of circumnavi- 
gating Jamaica. But instead of finding a direct course he 
was intercepted by a cluster of islands, several of which 
were of coral formation, and thus a source of the greatest 
peril. From these dangers he did not escape without much 
damage to the Santa Clara, which ran upon a dangerous 
bar and was only saved from destruction by the almost 
superhuman efforts of the crew. 

His course having been changed by obstacles encoun- 
tered, Columbus turned again towards Cuba, the coast of 
which he sighted on the 6th of July, and going on shore the 
following day, he set up a cross and began a solemn celebra- 
tion of Mass. While he was thus engaged some natives 
had watched the proceedings until one of their venerable 
priests, comprehending its import, came forward and ad- 
dressed Columbus, first proffering him a basket of fruit as a 
peace-offering. The aged priest told him, through the in- 
terpreter, that he understood the ceremony which he had 
thus witnessed to be an act of worship ; that he did not 
doubt the greatness and glory of the people and country 
whence the Spaniards were descended, but that haughtiness 
and pride were not becoming even in the greatest. He 
then explained to the Admiral that the philosophy of his 
religion taught him to believe that the souls of the dead 
have, according to merit, two destinies after leaving the 
body. Those who had spent their lives in wickedness were 
compelled to go into a horrible country where all was dark 
and dangerous ; but the ghosts of those who in their earth- 
lives were good in all their actions towards mankind jour- 
neyed after death into a land of blessedness and light. 
This rule of division he assured the Spaniards would be ap- 



THE NEW WORLD. 241 

plied even to themselves, however superior they might be 
in their civilization ; and he even declared that the Admiral 
himself would be punished with banishment into the dismal 
abodes if he were not just and gracious to the people among 
whom he had come. 

The speech of the native priest had in it an element not 
only of ethical soundness but of orthodoxy as well, which 
greatly surprised Columbus, who heartily improved the oc- 
casion to confirm the aboriginals' notions and to extend 
toward them the doctrine of Christianity. Columbus ac- 
cordingly explained to him the practical part of his mission 
— that he had come to these island countries to subdue the 
cannibals in order that the dread of their race might be 
taken away ; but that for the rest he was on an embassy of 
peace from his sovereigns, to whom he always, gave the 
greatest praise and glory. He also described to the natives 
some of the leading features of the Old World civilization, 
especially its splendors and mighty cities and the vast yield 
of its cultivated fields. The interest of the old priest was 
so excited by these explanations that he sought the privilege 
of going on board and sailing away with Columbus, and he 
was only restrained from this intention by his wife and chil- 
dren throwing themselves at his feet and beseeching him 
with tears not to leave them. 

Columbus continued on the coast of Cuba on this last 
visit until the i6th of July, when he resumed his voyage. 
But upon regaining the Queen's Gardens the squadron was 
assailed by a terrific storm which raged with such great fury 
that for two days the vessels were in the greatest danger, 
and reached Cabo la Cruz in an almost dismantled condition. 
Here it was necessary to beach the vessels for needed re- 
pairs to the bottoms, as well as to supply them with new 
sails, after which he resumed the voyage with intention to 

proceed to Jamaica and there carry into execution his plans 
16 



242 COLUMBUS. I 

for circumnavigating that island. In pursuance of this de- 
sign Columbus left La Cruz and gained the sliore of Ja- 
maica in a sail of two days, but was for a while prevented 
from continuing around its coast by the interruption of 
another storm, which compelled him to put into a harbor 
of that shore, where the natives received him with great 
kindness. In one instance a cacique came in the manner 
of royalty, accompanied by his queen and her daughters 
and a retinue of councilors and guards, all ornamented and 
painted according to aboriginal custom and etiquette. Ob- 
taining permission, they came on board the Santa Clara and 
were there hospitably received and entertained by Colum- 
bus, whose kindness so affected the cacique that, though 
ruler of a rich government, he expressed his desire to abdi- 
cate and return with the Spaniards to the celestial country 
whence he supposed they had come. For many reasons 
Columbus could not accept this proposal, but he had to use 
much persuasion to induce the chief and his family to return 
on shore and resume their royal functions among their 
people. 

Proceeding from one point of the island to another, as 
temporary abatement of the storm permitted a continuance 
of the voyage, on the 19th of August the circumnavigation 
of the island was completed, after which the Admiral steered 
for San Domingo, and three days thereafter came in sight 
of Cape San Miguel. From this point efforts were made to 
proceed directly to Isabella, but many new islands were 
encountered, to which names were given and short landings 
made. But these presently became so numerous that the 
sand-bars presented serious obstacles and detained the 
squadron nearly two weeks before they could be extricated 
from the dangers which surrounded them. 

The hardships of the voyage, though alternating at times 
with pleasant episodes on the shores of the various islands 



THE NEW WORLD. 243 

visited, had been extreme, and the crews were well-nigh the 
limits of their endurance. The Admiral himself, more than 
ever before, showed the effects of the great strain and 
sleepless anxiety to which he had been subjected. In his 
case exhaustion was not only of the body, but also of the 
mind and spirit. He could but feel, now that he was re- 
turning to his colony, that the aggregate results of his 
voyage fell far short, not indeed of reasonable expectation, 
but of that visionary and picturesque dream of which he 
himself had been the principal author. A rapturous vision 
of the Indies was entertained by Ferdinand and Isabella 
and by all the people of Spain ; indeed, the nations of Eu- 
rope were on tiptoe to catch the first tidings of things more 
marvelous than had yet been related concerning the bor- 
ders of the newly discovered world. Failing to realize 
these gorgeous anticipations, we may imagine the depress- 
ing effect produced by the disappointments which Columbus 
must have so keenly felt. 

Whatever may have been the cause, Columbus, on leav- 
ing the island of Mona and steering for Isabella, broke 
down completely and yielded to some form of malady which 
physical science may well be puzzled to understand. He 
became drowsy, and his senses, one by one, were covered 
with an oblivious veil through which no thought, no per- 
ception of external things, could penetrate. He fell into a 
sort of coma almost as deep as death ; indeed, it was believed 
by the ofificers and men, including Dr. Chanca, that the 
hour of the Admiral had come. They accordingly set all 
sail and, catching a favoring trade wind, bore off directly 
for the harbor of Isabella, where, on the 29th of September, 
1494, they arrived, bringing back Columbus, who, though 
still living, was wholly insensible. 

The joy felt by those who had remained faithful to the 
government of Diego was very great Avhen they saw the 



244 COLUMBUS. 

squadron of three vessels making into the bay, but the 
jubilation was quickly chilled when the knowledge of the 
Admiral's condition became known, 

We may here observe that it was nearly five months from 
the time that he was stricken down before Columbus recov- 
ered his health, and even at the expiration of that long 
period of debility his powers were not fully restored. 
Indeed, advancing age prevented rejuvenation and he was 
never himself again. His restoration was due in the largest 
measure to the unfaltering care of Father Juan Perez, who, 
having shared with the Admiral all the disappointments and 
hardships of the recent voyage, could not be persuaded to 
leave him at any time throughout the long period of his 
severe illness, but watched unremittingly beside the couch 
of his sick friend, speaking words of encouragement and 
ministering in every possible way to his needs. 

When Columbus opened his eyes to consciousness, after 
many days of insensibility, he found his brother Bartholo- 
mew standing by his side. His surprise was not only 
inexpressible, but for a while he believed himself dreaming 
and that his mind was still held fast in the shackles of the 
disease that had stricken him down ; and well it might be 
so, for long had it been since he had seen the face of his 
faithful and resolute brother. How, then, and why had 
Bartholomew Columbus come so far to receive and minister 
to his half-dead brother ? The story is long and full of 
interest, but we may not here pause to enter fully into the 
episodes and details of the extended adventures which had 
kept Bartholomew at the courts of Europe. The reader 
will readily recall the situation of affairs at the time when 
Columbus' mule was turned about on the bridge of Finos 
on the evening of the last day of his appeal for the patron- 
age of Ferdinand and Isabella. Believing that his cause 
was ended in Spain, Columbus had dispatched Barthol- 



THE NEW WORLD. 245 

omew to the Court of Henry VH., of England, to propose 
to that monarch the project of discovery. Tradition tells 
us — for the facts may not be obtained from any authenti- 
cated history — that the vessel in which he sailed was run 
down by pirates, who, after despoiling the ship of all its 
valuables, left the crew on some shore which is not named 
in the story. Bartholomew, robbed of his resources, was 
for a long time harassed by pressing want, his poverty being 
the greater because of his ignorance of the language of the 
people among whom he was thus harshly thrown. It was, 
therefore, several years before he succeeded in reaching 
England, and having at last arrived at that country he was 
compelled to spend two years more in acquiring the English 
language, learning the usages of the people, and in other- 
wise preparing himself to properly appear at the court of 
that nation. It was not until the middle of 1493, it is said, 
that he obtained an audience with the king, to whom he 
first presented a painted atlas, and then followed his request 
for aid to Christopher's enterprise with such convincing rea- 
soning that the monarch not only welcomed the proposal, 
but signified his desire to enter as quickly as possible upon 
the preliminaries of a contract, acceding to the demands 
made in the stipulations which Christopher had presented 
to the King of Portugal. 

Rejoicing at the success of his mission to England, Bar- 
tholomew departed in great haste to seek his brother. 
While passing through Paris on his way back to Spain he 
was first informed of the discovery of the New World and 
of the triumphal reception of the great discoverer by the 
Majesties of Spain and Portugal. Immediately Charles 
VIII. heard of Bartholomew's presence in Paris he sent for 
him, and not only welcomed him as the brother of the most 
distinguished explorer of the world's history, but, finding 
him in need of money, induced Bartholomew to accept a 



246 COLUMBUS. 

hundred gold crowns to defray the expenses of his return 
to Spain. 

Not considering that it was now important to hasten his 
journey, Bartholomew remained a while in France, and when 
he reached Seville it was to learn that Christopher had 
departed on his second voyage. Greatly disappointed at 
being thus prevented from accompanying him, Bartholomew 
visited Doiia Beatrix, at Cordova, and then took his nephews 
Diego and Fernando, who were studying there, to Valla- 
dolid and presented them at court, where they were ten- 
derly received and retained for a considerable while. 

Ferdinand and Isabella were both much impressed by the 
chivalric bearing of Bartholomew, as well as by his knowl- 
edge of many languages, including Latin, Portuguese, Span- 
ish, Danish, and English, and for his great skill as a navi- 
gator. To show her appreciation of his several conspicu- 
ous attainments and merits, the Queen granted him letters 
of nobility and the command of three ships, which she 
ordered him to load with provisions and take to the colony 
in Hispaniola. When he arrived at Isabella, however, he 
found that the Admiral had started upon his second explo- 
ration of Cuba, and he was therefore compelled to endure 
the anxiety of five months' further separation before cir- 
cumstances permitted him to greet at last the distinguished 
brother whom he had not seen for more than eight long 
and eventful years. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Over the whole island of Hispaniola there brooded the 
spirit of disquiet, which only needed the Admiral's absence 
to bring forth insubordination and riotous spoliation. Fol- 
lowing his departure the succeeding events may be thus 
briefly traced : As for the local affairs at Isabella, the ad- 
ministration had been conducted with tolerable success and 
conformably with the Admiral's instructions. It was only 
as the colony had been embroiled by the conduct of Mar- 
garite, leader of the military expedition in the interior, that 
confusion, clamor and injustice had arisen among the col- 
onists of the coast. It should be said once for all that 
Don Diego Columbus, whom the Admiral had left in author- 
ity, was a man of mild manners and moderate characteristics 
such as unsuited him to a considerable degree for the respon- 
sibilities and duties of this rough frontier government. But 
doubtless he would have succeeded better had he not been 
from the first impeded and treated with contempt by the 
military commandant and his followers. 

It will be remembered that by the Admiral's order Ojeda 
was assigned to the command of Fort St. Thomas and the 
leadership of the exploring expedition to Margarite. The 
latter was strictly enjoined to explore the mountain region 
and if possible discover the sources of gold. He was also 
to traverse as far as possible the five provinces of the island 
and prepare himself by actual observation and experience 
to report on the products and resources of every district 
visited. But, astonishing to relate, this reckless and obsti- 

247 



248 COLUMBUS. 

nate commander, as soon as he knew that the Admiral had 
gone forth on his voyage of discovery, discarded his instruc- 
tions and entered upon a career of insubordination and 
wickedness so flagrant as to brand him with the contempt, 
if not the hatred, of after time. 

Instead of going forward to explore the gold-bearing 
mountains of Cibao — instead even of marching northward 
through the countries of unvisited and unknown caciques — 
Margarite turned about from Fort St. Thomas, marched 
back into the populous and fertile regions of the Vega Real, 
and quartered himself and his men among the native vil- 
lages. Here he began at once a course of inaction, licentious- 
ness and outrage so brutal and vile as to defy narration. 
They began their abuse of the natives by violently appro- 
priating whatever pleased them, paying nothing for their 
provisions, taking what they would, and wastefully destroy- 
ing the residue. 

It was not long until the supplies in the villages ran low 
and the natives found themselves without food. At the 
same time the Spaniards began to take all the gold which 
the Indians had gathered, with no pains to recompense them 
even with trinkets. The next step was to compel the natives 
to gather more of the shining dust for their masters. The 
latter assumed the manner of slave-drivers and abused the 
timid people of the towns as though they were dogs and 
cattle. From seeking wives respectfully, the Spaniards 
began to claim the native women and to take them without 
regard to the rights or rank of the fathers, husbands and 
brothers. The women of the villages were in the power of 
the stranger, and mere lust ran riot until the barbaric nature 
of the islanders, however meek and subservient, could bear 
it no longer. 

While this reign of shame and wickedness prevailed in 
the villages of the Vega, under the example and leadership 



THE NEW WORLD. 249 

of Margarite, the evil extended along social and political 
lines to the colony at Isabella. In general the Hidalgo ele- 
ment among the Spaniards fell into sympathy with Mar- 
garite. When the news of the proceedings of the latter 
were carried to Don Diego he immediately laid the matter 
before his council, and the result was a letter of rebuke to 
the offending officer and his command. He was reminded 
of the instructions which had been given him by the Ad- 
miral, and directed, in compliance therewith, to break off 
from his corrupt life in the Vega and prosecute the expedi- 
tion of discovery. Instead, however, of accepting this 
authoritative paper and obeying it, Margarite broke into 
open rebellion. He renounced Diego Columbus and the 
council, declaring himself independent, and affecting con- 
tempt for the parvenu Columbuses, who, through the vicis- 
situdes of fortune, had gained a rank under which they 
thought to lord it overmen having in their blood noble cur- 
rents of ancient Spain. 

In this contumacy the captain was supported by the 
reckless young nobles of the colony, whom, as the reader 
will remember, the Admiral himself had found so much 
difficulty in controlling. The general result was the establish- 
ment of an aristocratical faction in the island, embracing the 
Hidalgos and all the Adullamites of the colony. The 
name of these was legion, and legitimate authority was 
soon paralyzed in their presence. 

Perhaps after all Diego and the council might have been 
able to maintain order if it had not been for the defection 
of the Vicar Buyl and his subordinate ecclesiastics. Those 
priests, including Father Perez, who were faithful to the 
Admiral first and last, had generally accompanied him 
on his voyages, while the Buyl faction remained in the 
island and had gone over in a body to the malcontents. 
In such a state of affairs sedition was the natural, perhaps 



250 COLUMBUS. 

the inevitable, result. When Bartholomew Columbus ar- 
rived disorder was king. Nor had he any other than moral 
force with which to support his brother in the government. 
On the other hand Margarite felt himself strong. He had the 
backing of the nobility and the priesthood. Besides, both 
he and Buyl believed with good reason that they stood 
well with Ferdinand, and that the Admiral was not, and 
never had been, in great favor with the monarch. 

Thus fortified by the circumstances, Margarite and the 
vicar made a conspiracy to seize the three ships constitut- 
ing the fleet of Bartholomew Columbus and to sail back to 
Spain, where the whole cave of Adullam might discharge 
itself in the royal court. The enterprise gathered head, 
and this time was successful. The mutineers seized the 
vessels, and under the lead of Margarite and the Vicar Buyl 
sailed away for the mother country. Nor was there any 
power to prevent them from doing so. Among the many 
squadrons bearing from port to port of our poor world their 
cargoes of lies, this seditious fleet, commanded by a brig- 
and and a priest, was conspicuous for carrying the heaviest 
load. 

All this was done long before the return of the Admiral. 
As for the army, whether in the Vega Real or straggling 
back to Isabella, it had no longer a commander and quickly 
fell to pieces of neglect and insubordination. The soldiers 
broke into bands and ranged at will among the Indian 
towns, taking the same course of vice, outrage and deprav- 
ity which they had pursued with the consent and by the 
example of Margarite. The natives, driven to desperation, 
at length rose against the wretched criminals who had vio. 
lated every principle of honor and decency, and the Span- 
iards soon began to feel the sting of retributive justice. In 
one case ten of the straggling soldiers were taken by Chief 
Guarione.x and put to death without much regard to form, 



THE NEW WORLD. 251 

He next succeeded in throwing a large force of his warriors 
around the fortress, where another band numbering forty- 
six had taken possession, and the houses were fired. 
Almost all of the Spaniards perished, either in the flames or 
by the darts of the enemy. In the next place the garrison 
of a little block-house called Magdalena was cooped up in 
a siege and was unable to extricate itself until reinforce- 
ments were sent out from Isabella. 

The situation was sufficiently alarming. As soon as the 
Admiral's health was in a measure restored he applied him- 
self with diligence to the restoration of order. Matters had 
now gone so far, however, that mere personal kindness 
could nor avail, and diplomacy had to give place to war. 
The greater part of all the islanders had become positively 
hostile. There were, as we have said, in Hispaniola five 
provinces or principal caciquedoms. The first and most 
northerly of these was called Marten in the native tongue, 
and was ruled over by Guacanagari. The second was 
called Magnana, lying on the southern coast between the 
lagoons and the River Ozema. The third was the great cen- 
tral province of Xaragiia, lying over to the southwest and 
having for its most conspicuous physical feature the great 
headland called Cape Tiburon. The fourth division was 
called Higucy, and occupied the eastern extremity of the 
island as far north as Samana Bay and the River Yuna. 
The fifth and most important of all included the great, fer- 
tile and populous plain of the Vega Real. 

As we have said, the ruler of the first-named district was 
that Guacanagari whose generous friendship had been ex- 
tended to Columbus in the perilous day when the Sa?ita 
Maria was wrecked on the coast. The second cacique, by 
far the ablest and most warlike, was of Carib extraction 
and was, as the reader knows, called Caonabo (King of the 
Golden Realm). The third ruler was named Pehechio. He 



2^2 COLUMBUS. 

it was whose sister, the peerless beauty Anacaona, was the 
wife of King Caonabo. Tlie cacique of Iliguey was named 
Cotubanama, whose subjects had many Carib elements in 
their disposition, but who was not himself of a warlike 
character. The cacique of the Vega Real region was, as we 
have seen, that Guarionex with whom for about six months 
the Spaniards had been in close relations. 

Of these five caciques four were now hostile to the Span- 
iards, and possibly Guacanagari might himself have been ad- 
ded to the league but for the fact that the others, suspecting 
his unchangeable friendship for the foreigners, had attacked 
him in his own village, and besides massacring several of 
his people had killed the beautiful Catalina, who, it will be 
remembered, escaped from Columbus' vessel and fled into 
the forest, where she was directly afterwards followed by 
the chief who made her his wife. This violent outrage con- 
firmed the friendly feelings which he had before entertained 
for the Spaniards, and to their fortunes he now attached 
himself more firmly than ever. Immediately upon the 
Admiral's return Guacanagari opened communication with 
him and supplied valuable information respecting the move- 
ments that were going on in the island, and otherwise 
manifested his deep concern for the welfare of his visitors, 
so that he completely dispelled all suspicions which Colum- 
bus had formerly entertained. 

The population of Hispaniola at. this time was variously 
estimated at from five hundred thousand to a million, a 
number sufficiently great to more than compensate for the 
poor weapons with which they had to make the attack. 
They were naked as to their bodies, having no defensive 
armor, while their weapons extended no further than a 
hardened shaft of wood pointed with bone, which served 
the purpose of a lance, and in the matter of discipline they 
were barbarians. But they were very courageous, and hav- 



THE NEW WORLD. 253 

ing great confidence in the superiority of numbers, they 
made bold to attack the Spaniards even in their defenses. 
In going to battle the natives advanced in a disorganized 
body, every warrior being allowed to direct his own attack 
from such covert as he might find. 

Though something was to be feared from the mere pres- 
sure of numbers, the Spaniards might in other respects 
smile at the puny rage of these naked men of the forest as 
they howled from the thickets and discharged their harm- 
less darts. Caonabo was, by general consent, commandant 
of the native force, and besides being at the head of the 
most powerful tribe on the island, he possessed many spe- 
cial qualities, chief of which were courage and sagacity, and 
with effective weapons he would have been a formidable 
antagonist. He had not failed to note the dissipated and 
wretched bands of Margarite's army, which had been de- 
stroyed or expelled by the inhabitants of the towns on his 
borders, and he now naturally directed his attention to 
Fort St Thomas, which he knew to be poorly defended, 
and determined to assault and destroy that place, as he had 
done La Natividad. At the head of ten thousand men he 
advanced cautiously to the vicinity of the fort, expecting 
to surprise the garrison and overwhelm them before they 
were able to make preparations to receive him. But in this 
he was fatally deceived. The command of the fort had 
been intrusted to Ojeda, who was not likely to be caught 
off his guard, for of all men among the Spaniards he was 
the most alert, intrepid and active. Discovering before he 
made his attack that the garrison was ready to receive him, 
Caonabo changed his tactics, and instead of attempting to 
carry it by assault, contented himself with surrounding the 
fort with the hope of compelling it to yield through 
famine. 

This siege continued for a month, and brought the Span- 



254 COLUMBUS. 

iards to such great distress that they were compelled to 
resort to every expedient in order to obtain supplies. 
Occasional sorties were made by Ojeda, by which a few 
provisions were procured, but the main dependence of the 
garrison was in the assistance brought to them by friendly 
Indians, who managed on many occasions to smuggle in 
small supplies of food. A characteristic anecdote is pre- 
served of the coming in of one of the friendly Indians with 
two wood-pigeons for Ojeda. When they were given to 
him some of the officers looked wistfully at the birds as 
though they would devour them alive. Thereupon Ojeda 
took the pigeons to a window and tossing them forth into 
the air, said, " It's a pity there isn't enough for all of us." 
It is plain that such a character as this would not easily 
succumb to any of the harsh conditions which the siege 
might impose. This long delay also affected the hostile 
Indians, who, observing how futile had been the results of 
the siege, began to desert, until at the expiration of a 
month Caonabo's forces were so much reduced in numbers 
that he decided to retire from the country. But his ill suc- 
cess in the long effort to destroy the Spaniards at Fort St. 
Thomas abated none of his determination to visit a suf- 
ficient punishment upon his aggressors, and accordingly 
Caonabo retired into the country and for a season used all 
his efforts in centralizing the power of the several chiefs, 
whose consent he at length obtained to make a demonstra- 
tion against the colony at Isabella. A league having thus 
been formed, Caonabo made an examination of the sur- 
roundings of Isabella, and found that an attack on that 
place might be made with every promise of success. The 
garrison was small and the fort was nothing like so strong 
as that at Fort St. Thomas, besides Caonabo had every 
reason to believe that the commandant possessed little of 
the skill and bravery of Ojeda. But the expectations of 



THE NEW WORLD. 555 

Caonabo were yet a long ways from realization. He found 
directly that even the promises of the chiefs themselves 
might not be implicitly relied on, while Guacanagari was a 
constant menace to the success of his plans. Columbus 
was duly apprised of the intentions of the natives, and 
adopted the most energetic measures to repel and break up 
the Indian confederacy. His first step was to make sure 
of the condition of his three forts in the Vega Real, after 
which, through some influential Indians, he succeeded in 
opening communications with Guarionex, who had joined 
the league with some misgivings. While not succeeding 
in securing his assistance, he obtained a promise that in 
case of hostilities he would maintain a neutral attitude. 
But Columbus was not content with the bare promise of tlie 
chief, and in order to bind him to a performance of his 
agreement Columbus sought the daughter of the cacique 
and gave her in marriage to his interpreter, Diego, the 
Guanahanian. He also obtained the consent of the chief 
to build a fortress in his territory, to which the name of 
Fort Conception was given. This gave the Spaniards an 
advantage which they were not slow to appreciate. 

By this time Columbus had come to believe that a great 
part of the strength of the confederation lay in Caonabo 
himself, and it was evident that that great chieftain fur- 
nished the energy, the spirit and the warlike skill of the 
whole movement. It therefore seemed essential that by 
some means, fair or foul, Caonabo should be captured. 
This, however, was no easy task, whether by force or by 
stratagem. Yet the situation was precisely of the kind to 
evoke the adventurous spirit and genius of Ojcda. That 
captain, after considering the nature of the thing to be 
done, volunteered to kidnap Caonabo and to bring him a 
prisoner to the Admiral. From the very nature of things 
such an enterprise was more easily conceived than accom- 



256 COLUMBUS. 

plished. But Ojeda was equal to the emergency, and with 
a small company of horsemen he sallied forth into the terri- 
tories of Caonabo, bent upon his desperate enterprise. In 
the meantime, by some means which history has not made 
sufficiently plain, Ojeda had succeeded in establishing some 
friendly relations with Caonabo, whose admiration might 
possibly have been excited by the resolute resistance with 
which that brave Spaniard had met the attack of the over- 
whelming force of natives at Fort St. Thomas. 

At all events, it is declared that Ojeda Avent into the ter- 
ritory of Caonabo under the cover of friendship, and upon 
his approaching in the character of an ambassador he was 
readily permitted to enter the chief's village. Ojeda had 
formed his plans with his usual skill in warfare, his idea 
being to gain the chieftain's confidence and then to allure 
him by some specious promises to Isabella, where he might 
be seized and confined. He first tried the stratagem of the 
bell. The Spaniards of the colony had erected a small 
chapel and placed a bell in the steeple, which as good 
Catholics they were constantly ringing. The music of this 
resonant monitor rang out on the morning air and fell on 
the astonished ears of the natives. In answer to their ex- 
pressions of surprise they were told that the bell was calling 
the people to prayers. So the myth was scattered abroad 
that the metallic voice in the steeple was a living thing — 
a, spirit that could cry out and summon the Spaniards to 
worship. Great, therefore, was the fame of this bell, a delu- 
sion which Ojeda encouraged by adding many embellish- 
ments, until the interest of the natives was thoroughly 
aroused. And he finally told Caonabo that if he would re- 
pair to Isabella and make a treaty of friendship with the 
Admiral he should have the marvelous bell as a present for 
himself. His desire was so great to possess this wondrous 
relic that Caonabo took the bait, though warily. He made 



THE NEW WORLD. 257 

his preparations to visit the Spanish colony, but called a 
large body of his best warriors to go with him. When 
Ojeda protested that this was not necessary the cacique re- 
plied that it would be unbecoming in him as a king to go 
about the country without the company of a royal guard. 

Perceiving what might be the result of an attempt to 
seize Caonabo when surrounded by a large body of native 
soldiery, Ojeda abandoned this first scheme and adopted 
another equally bold expedient. Believing that he might 
have need of such instruments, Ojeda had taken with him 
into the Indian country some manacles, or handcuffs, which 
the Spaniards humorously called espoiisas, or " wives." 
This significant apparatus was made of brass and steel, pol- 
ished to perfect brightness. These Ojeda displayed one 
day to Caonabo, and when the cacique inquired about them 
he was informed that they were a kind of ornament which, 
in the country across the ocean, were worn only by kings 
and queens. Such jewelry, he was told, the monarchs of 
Castile always wore when they went to bathe, or to dance, 
or to preside at festivals. Having thus excited both his 
interest and desire, he finally told Caonabo that as a token 
of honor he himself might wear them when they went to 
the river for his bath ; that the cacique should play Spanish 
king, and he, Ojeda, would show him how it was done. In 
such a proposition Caonabo could discover no ground of 
suspicion. He accordingly accepted the invitation and the 
manacles were adjusted to his wrists. When the bath was 
finished, Ojeda courteously assisting, the cacique was told 
that the Spanish king on such occasions always mounted 
behind one of his courtiers after the bath and thus rode 
triumphantly back to his palace; but it was the custom of 
Spain that the courtier should direct his horse in circles, 
like the flight of a bird. To all these things consenting, 
the cacique was mounted behind Ojeda on the back of a 
17 



258 COLUMBUS. 

very fine and fleet horse, and putting spurs to the animal, 
they began to circle round and round, Ojeda at the same 
time giving the signal to the Spaniards who had accom- 
panied him to mount. He made the circles larger and 
larger, for that was no doubt the way the King of Castile did 
on such occasions ! At length, however, when the curve of 
the comedy swung out near the edge of the woods, the 
tangential force became too great for Ojeda, and putting 
spurs to his horse, he struck away with his prisoner at full 
gallop into the forest. 

The Spanish troop continued its flight through villages, 
fighting and charging, swam rivers, plunged through thick- 
ets, and by this fierce riding brought back in triumph to 
Isabella the astonished and humiliated Caonabo. Strange 
enough, the rage of the cacique was directed not against 
Ojeda whose skill in war and exploit he regarded as the 
most marvelous things in history, but rather against the 
Admiral, who he declared had acted in the most cowardly 
manner by keeping himself within his borders while his 
brave captain had gone forth and by adroitness had made 
prisoner a king. 

Caonabo was placed in confinement in a room of the Ad- 
miral's own house, and was treated for the time with the 
distinction and courtesy usually accorded to royal prisoners. 
But notwithstanding this considerate treatment and the 
fact that the head of the confederacy was now in confine- 
ment, the duplicity by which he was taken aroused the 
subjects of Caonabo to still greater hostility. During his 
captivity a league of the three principal caciques was con- 
solidated under a brother of the captive king who had now 
become cacique in his stead. War alarms began to be 
sounded in nearly all parts of the island, and in an incredi- 
bly short time an army of seven thousand Indians advanced 
against Fort St. Thomas. But Ojeda. learning of the move- 



THE NEW WORLD. 259 

ment and anticipating the prospects of another siege, in- 
creased his force by a detachment sent to him by Bartholo- 
mew Columbus, who had received an appointment as Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, and boldly marched forth to give them 
battle. By forced marches he came upon the Indians when 
they were least expecting his presence, and fell upon them 
with such fury that the natives were quickly routed and 
driven in all directions before the charge of the cavalry. 

In the meantime affairs at Isabella had greatly improved 
by the arrival of four caravels under the command of 
Antonio de Torres, bringing a good supply of provisions, 
medicines, clothing and merchandise, and also several 
artisans very needful in the present condition of the colony. 
As for the Admiral, he was particularly delighted by the 
receipt of a package of documents from their Majesties, in 
which among other things were some letters filled with ex- 
pressions of regard and high compliment. His whole course 
of management was heartily approved, and the pleasing 
intelligence w^as conveyed that all serious difficulties with 
the Crown of Portugal, which were pending at the time of 
Columbus' last departure, had been adjusted, with a com- 
promise involving a new line of division. To determine 
the true place of the line the sovereigns thought it ex- 
pedient that Columbus should return to Europe, bringing 
his charts with him, but in case he could not conveniently 
leave the colony he was instructed to send some one in his 
stead. In compliance with this request of the King and 
Queen, the Admiral, who could not leave the colony in its 
present condition, commissioned Diego Columbus to return 
to Spain and aid their Majesties in the settlement of their 
business with the Portuguese Court. 

Other things more important than the matters referred to 
in their Majesties' communication concerned Columbus and 
made it very important that he should dispatch a repre- 



26o COLUMBUS. 

sentative to the Spanish Court to counteract the influence 
of Margarite and Buyl, who were now making their way 
across the Atlantic to falsely represent the Admiral's ad- 
ministration in the Indies. Columbus knew well that as 
soon as these unscrupulous but able messengers of mischief 
should reach the Spanish Court they would exert them- 
selves to the utmost to destroy his place in the affections 
and confidence of the sovereigns. He therefore determined 
to follow up the emissaries of evil with an embassy in his 
own interests. 

Ships were at once prepared for a home-bound voyage, 
and the Eagle was dispatched not only as the bearer of the 
charts requested, but with the Admiral's representative in 
the affairs which now so deeply concerned him. Columbus 
took pains to send home a large contribution of gold, as 
great as he could procure, and other metals were added as an 
evidence of the mineral wealth of Hispaniola. The viceroy 
was also able to supply many new specimens of plants and 
animals, some of which were of value and all of interest. 
Finally he ordered forth and sent on board the ships nearly 
five hundred Indian captives, to be sold as slaves in the 
markets of Spain. Doubtless he thought by this means, 
even against the recent admonition of the sovereigns to 
" find some other way," to add so much to the Spanish 
treasury that the inhumanity of the enterprise would be 
overshadowed by the profit. It may be said, in extenuation 
of this act, that slavery and the slave trade were the every- 
day and well-approved vices of all Christian states, and that 
only a few loftier minds had in those ages of cruelty and 
gloom perceived the atrocity and horror of the system. 

After the departure of his fleet Columbus was left to 
consider and solve the local complications of his govern- 
ment. It directly appeared that the decisive defeat of the 
natives by Ojeda had by no means ended their hostility. 



THE NEW WORLD. 261 

Caonabo had several brothers, all of whom became more 
active than ever in exciting the Indians and forming con- 
federations. A powerful influence was also exerted b}^ 
Anacaona, the favorite wife of the captive king, who freely 
circulated among the tribes, like Boadicea among the 
Britons, encouraging the caciques to renew the war. So suc- 
cessful were her efTorts, joined with those of the cacique's 
brothers, that all the native princes except Guacanagari 
and Guarionex were brought into a league by which an army 
estimated at a hundred thousand men was collected for a 
final struggle with the Spaniards. This large force was 
under the command of Manicaotex, one of the brothers of 
Caonabo, a warlike and able general who had some skill in 
arranging and controlling the warriors in battle. This vast 
force had already gathered and set out for the southern part 
of the island to attack Isabella, when information of the 
impending avalanche was brought to Columbus by Guacan- 
agari. The Admiral, though his bodily powers were not 
yet fully restored, immediately prepared for the onset. He 
was able to bring into the field only two hundred crossbow- 
men and arquebusiers and twenty cavalrymen, but as allies 
he had in his service a great number of the men of Guacan- 
agari, though in such an emergency reliance could be 
placed only on the mailed, heavily-armed and well-disci- 
plined soldiers. Another element of strength, or rather of 
ferocity and terror, was added to the equipment, in the way 
of twenty bloodhounds, whose malign instincts made them 
as desperate in fight as so many enraged tigers. 

Columbus himself took the field, with his brother Bar- 
tholomew as his chief commander. Both had skill and 
courage in war, and though the enemy was a host and the 
Spaniards but a handful, the commanders little doubted the 
result of the conflict. Says Irving: 

" The whole sound and effective force that he could 



262 COLUMBUS. 

muster, however, in the present infirm stat§ of the colony 
did not exceed two hundred infantry and twenty horse. 
They were armed with crossbows, swords, lances, and 
espingardas, or heavy arquebuses, which in those days were 
used with rests and sometimes mounted on wheels. With 
these formidable weapons a handful of European warriors 
cased in steel and covered with bucklers were able to cope 
with thousands of naked savages. They had aid of another 
kind, however, consisting of twenty bloodhounds, animals 
scarcely less terrible to the Indians than the horses, and 
infinitely more fatal. They were fearless and ferocious ; 
nothing daunted them, nor when they had once seized upon 
their prey could anything compel them to relinquish their 
hold. The naked bodies of the Indians offered no defense 
against their attacks. They sprang on them, dragged them 
to the earth and tore them to pieces." 

Advancing from Isabella, the small army made its way to 
the mountain region over which lay the Pass of the Hidal- 
gos. The Indian forces advanced from the southwest 
across the Vega, while the Spaniards came down from the 
opposite side to the plain. The battlefield was near the 
present site of the town of St. Jago. Here, on the 29th of 
March, 1495, the opposing armies came in sight of each 
other and prepared for the conflict. Small as were his 
forces, Columbus divided his army into several detachments 
of thirty or forty men, so as to extend as much as he could 
his lines from right to left. It was by far the most serious 
situation which had yet appeared in the relations of the two 
races in the New World. 

The Spaniards, without waiting to be attacked, sounded 
their trumpets, beat their drums, discharged their murderous 
arquebuses, and rushed forward to the attack. It was 
imposssible that the warriors, however numerous, could 
withstand the assault wherever it fell. Ojeda's troop of 



THE NEW WORLD. 263 

cavalry galloped at full speed with drawn swords among the 
thickest aggregations of the enemy, and cut them down as 
a mower might lay the grass. To all this havoc was added 
the terrible work of the bloodhounds, which rushed upon 
the Indians and tore them to pieces. The spectacle was 
appalling. For a short time along the front line there was 
nothing but butchery, and there was more likelihood that 
the Spaniards would be exhausted from the over-exertion of 
killing than that they would receive injury from the barba- 
rians. Of course such work could not long be borne. The 
Indians gave way before the assault and fled in all directions. 
Terror supervened, and the wretched creatures, panic- 
stricken before the charging cavalry, the raging blood- 
hounds and the thundering arquebuses, taking themselves 
to flight, hid in the woods and thickets or climbed into 
trees and rocky places of the cliffs, from which they im- 
mediately began to set up piteous cries and make signs of 
submission. Before nightfall the work was done. The 
confederacy was utterly broken up. Nor was it likely that 
any great concerted effort would any more be made to 
exterminate the terrible foreigners who had got their relent- 
less grip on the island. It only remained for Columbus to 
dictate what terms he would to the conquered tribes and 
make the most of his victory. 

For a while after the battle the Admiral remained in the 
field, marching from place to place through a wide range of 
territory, visiting the towns and receiving the submission of 
the caciques. The expedition was in terroran. Ojeda with 
his company of cavalry dashed hither and yon through the 
provinces, and all opposition quailed before him. Guari- 
onex was the first to make peace. Soon Manicaotex was 
humbled and brought to submission. As for Behechio and 
Anacaona, their place was in the long peninsula which 
reaches out, like the left arm of a cray-fish, from the south- 



264 COLUMBUS. 

west shoulder of the island. The situation was the most 
inaccessible of all, and this cacique and his warlike sister 
were correspondingly haughty and unsubdued. 

For a time a measure of independence was retained by the 
natives of this part of the island ; but in all other parts the 
conquest was complete and final. Guacanagari had already 
accepted for himself and his people the position of vassals 
under the viceroy's government. It only remained for the 
latter to assess upon the conquered the damages of war ; 
and this he proceeded to do in a manner that might well 
give a hint of the terrible exactions and tyrannies and cruel 
grindings to which the native races of Spanish America were 
soon to be subjected by their conquerors. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Sordid ambition, greed, unappeasable avarice, consti- 
tuted the ruling passions of the Spaniards, to which other 
unholy aspirations were added as the outgrowths of oppor- 
tunity. It is an easy and natural descent for the covetous 
from whom are removed the restraints that keep in curb the 
basest natures of man, to become the voluptuary, and under 
the license which savage life affords, it is not surprising that 
even the hidalgos, born in luxury, should fall into excesses 
from which, under better influences, they would have re- 
coiled. Columbus has not been accused of succumbing to 
these evil temptations, but though he may have been at 
times inspired by pious emotions, and was sincere in his de- 
sire to extend Christianity among the islanders, it is a lam- 
entable fact that the avarice in his nature predominated to 
such an extent as to blunt his sense of justice and place him 
on an equality with the greed-besotted subjects who shared 
his fortunes. 

The one centralizing ambition of all who had any part in 
the expeditions was to acquire gold. If Columbus enter- 
tained aspirations different from all others associated in his 
enterprise, it was because he had not been tainted by con- 
tact with the rich before conceiving his grand project. But 
the most truly pious cannot remain long insensible to the 
effects of aggrandizement, and the most humble nature is 
not proof against the pride that rises with its own exalta- 
tion. The motives of Ferdinand and Isabella became by 

the most natural corollary the motives of Columbus, not only 

265 



266 COLUMBUS. 

to gratify the sovereign will, whose favors it was policy to 
court, but to satisfy a longing created by his own environ- 
ment. And thus it was that his own heart beat respon- 
sive to the one supreme desire that craved gold, gold, gold ! 

Under existing circumstances it was positively necessary 
for Columbus to satisfy the prevailing passion of the Spanish 
sovereigns as well as his own, or to acknowledge the failure 
of his enterprise, which had already been strongly denounced 
by his enemies, Margarite and De Buyl, who had gone be- 
fore to make evil report of the results of his discoveries in 
the New World. It was in the light of these circumstances 
that he must now proceed to organize wealth, in the form 
of gold if possible, in the form of slaves if he must ; for 
such was the only argument with which the flood of de- 
traction and calumny could be effectually checked at its 
fountain. 

For a considerable while Columbus revolved in his mind 
the most effective means for procuring such supplies of gold 
as might satisfy the avarice of Ferdinand and Isabella, as 
well as his own ambition. The resolution at length came of 
subordinating the natives of the island to the work of col- 
lecting and delivering the precious metal. The measure 
adopted by Columbus was sweeping, universal and severe. 
It contemplated no less than a tribute laid upon all the 
youth and adult natives of the island, the limit of age being 
fixed at fourteen years. Under this edict every native was 
required, under heavy penalty, to deliver to the Admiral, 
at the expiration of every three months, a quantity of gold- 
dust sufficient to fill a hawk's bell, in value about $25. 
This was the requirement of the people at large, while the 
head men and caciques were taxed more heavily according to 
their rank. The amount assessed against the kings who 
had headed the recent confederacy was half agourdful each, 
about $150. 



THE NEW WORLD. 267 

In his rapacity Columbus failed to regard the fact that 
gold was not universally distributed, and that the difificulty 
of collecting it was ten times greater in some parts of the 
island than in others. His proclamation was nevertheless 
universal, and explicit compliance therewith was severely 
demanded. It was only a short while before the islanders 
bowed to the exactions thus imposed and entered upon 
their slavish task. But the impossibility of universal com- 
pliance directly became apparent. Guarionex was the first 
to appear before the Admiral with his complaint and to 
assure him that his people could not possibly meet the 
exaction, and in a spirit of humility suggested a com- 
mutation of service. As an evidence that he was not a 
petitioner for the removal of the burdens that had been 
imposed, he accordingly offered to substitute agricultural 
products of more than the equivalent value, on condition 
that his people be relieved from the exaction of gathering 
gold. He also told the Admiral that under such terms his 
people would devote themselves to planting and cultivat- 
ing the territory of the island, reaching from sea to sea, 
which might be rendered sufficiently productive to pro- 
vide for the wants of all Spain, and the value of which 
would be greatly in excess of all the gold that might be 
gathered from the island. 

At the time this proposition was made the colony was well 
provided with provisions, and Columbus had no mind to 
listen to the petitions of the chief. But perceiving di- 
rectly the impossibility of securing the amount of gold 
which he had imposed as a tribute, under sheer necessity he 
finally agreed to reduce the amount to one-half of that first 
named per capita. 

Under these pitiless exactions the Indian population of 
Hispaniola was virtually reduced to servitude. The op- 
pression of this despotic law was ten-fold greater by reason 



268 COLUMBUS. 

of the fact that the natives haJ always enjoyed a perfect 
freedom, the natural productions of the soil relieving them 
from all necessity of manual labor. Even their allegiance 
to their caciques was so loose as to leave them in a state of 
semi-license, nature having confederated with the simple 
laws of barbaric life,which forbade servitude and encouraged 
freedom. Their diet being almost exclusively vegetable, 
they possessed little strength, and engagement in severe 
labor quickly exhausted their energies. The greater part 
of their time had, therefore, been spent in sleep, plays 
or dances. They were a people, too, not without other 
amusements, for they had their wandering poets and story- 
tellers who rendered in simple lays adventures of the Caribs 
and the histories of sorcerers. They had also their poems, 
called arcytos, which were translated into several idioms 
of the island and chiefly celebrated Anacaona, a wife of one 
of the chiefs, whose name signified " golden flower." Under 
the circumstances the edict of the Admiral fell upon them 
like a pall. The inhabitants had intelligence enough to un- 
derstand the alteration in their condition and the hopeless- 
ness of the future. Gloom came like the shadow of an 
ominous cloud and settled upon the Indians, transforming 
them from a cheerful and careless race into a people whose 
characteristics now became sullen repugnance and despair. 
Complaints which he knew to be well founded had no other 
effect upon Columbus than to increase his activities in ex- 
tending his power against the day when he perceived it 
would be necessary to meet an uprising of the oppressed 
people. To this end he adopted the plan of multiplying the 
fortifications which he had established in the island, locat- 
ing them in such situations as to give a military advantage 
to the government. 

Early in the spring of 1495 complications thickened 
around Columbus until the threads of sequence may with 



THE NEW WORLD. 269 

difficulty be traced through the tangled web of the gen- 
eral event. Complex forces began to work on both sides 
of the Atlantic and to combine in unexpected proportions 
in the issue and course of current history. In due course 
of time Margarite and the treacherous prelate, Buyl, arrived 
in Spain fully charged with the falsehoods which they were 
anxious to deliver to their Majesties. In the reports which 
they proceeded to make and authenticate by means of 
others as treacherous as themselves were blended all the 
elements of prejudice, misrepresentation and malice. Hav- 
ing broken completely with the Admiral, the conspirators 
were now under the necessity of utterly destroying his 
fame or being themselves driven in disgrace from the royal 
presence. Having a temporary advantage they employed 
it to the fullest extent, and going directly to the King and 
Queen, delivered such mendacious assaults against the 
methods and personal character of Columbus that even 
the Queen herself was affected by the serious charges that 
were made. At all events the effect on the court was suf- 
ficient to procure an order for the sending out of a royal 
delegation to the West Indies to thoroughly consider the 
condition of affairs and prepare a complete report respect- 
ing the administration of Columbus and his subordinates. 
At the same time the exclusive license which had been 
granted to Columbus was revoked and general permission 
was given to all native Spaniards to sail on voyages of 
discovery or to establish themselves as landholders in His- 
paniola and other parts of the New World. This measure, 
by which the well-established prerogatives of the viceroy 
were to be put aside and the countries which he had discov- 
ered thrown open to miscellaneous adventurers, was pro- 
moted by Vincente Yanez Pinzon, who after the death of 
Alonzo became the representative of that powerful family 
at Palos. He being a man of wealth and rank proposed to 



270 COLUMBUS. 

the Spanish sovereigns to fit out a squadron and prosecute 
the work of West Atlantic discovery at his own expense, 
which was considered with such favor that his requests 
were promptly granted, thus sweeping away all the grants, 
privileges and honors which had been reserved by solemn 
compact for Columbus. 

In anticipation of the assaults that would be made by 
Margarite and De Buyl against his character, Columbus 
had wisely dispatched Antonio de Torres to carry home to 
Spain the antidote for the poison which was to be adminis- 
tered by the mutineers. Just at the time when Margarite 
and the vicar had secured the order from the sovereigns for 
an examination of the Admiral's administration, the fleet 
of De Torres arrived at Cadiz, and the captain proceeded 
to report to the sovereigns the actual condition of affairs in 
the island. He was also able to verify his declarations by 
a display of products, including much gold and the five 
hundred Indian slaves that had been sent, as already 
narrated. His statements and the material proofs produced 
the happiest effects upon Ferdinand and Isabella, who 
could not fail to perceive the manifest, tangible, indubitable 
evidence of the conspiracy of Margarite and De Buyl and 
the falseness of the greater part of their narration. Some- 
thing of a reaction immediately followed, and a new order 
was issued which, while it did not completely rescind the 
former, was nevertheless much more favorable to Columbus 
and his party. It was now directed that instead of sending 
to the Indies a person to be nominated by De Fonseca, 
whose enmity towards Columbus he had never sought to 
disguise, the appointment should be given to Juan Aguado, 
a Spaniard of high standing whom Columbus considered his 
friend and whom he had on an occasion recommended to 
the favor of the King and Queen. 

But while commending Columbus in some particulars, 



THE NEW WORLD. 2;i 

their Majesties disclaimed his method of discipline, and 
even condemned some of his harsh measures, the salutary 
effects of which they had not been able to appreciate. In 
addition the Queen specially reprehended the enslavement 
of the natives, and instead of putting them on the market 
in Seville for sale, as Columbus had suggested, she deter- 
mined that they should be returned to their native land, 
and not only given their freedom, but that proper apology 
should be rendered for the outrage that had been com- 
mitted by this attempt to force them into bondage. How- 
ever, this decision was not immediately reached, as the 
Queen had a mind to first defer to a conference of theolo- 
gians with a view to obtaining their opinions as to the justice 
of converting any of the Indian subjects, pagans though 
they were, into slaves. A majority of the prelates having 
debated the question among themselves, decided in the af- 
firmative, to which decision a small minority objected. 

It would appear from the results that the Queen deferred 
to the conference of prelates through courtesy, as slavery 
was a recognized institution in Spain at the time, and there 
was a general approval of it among what were called true 
Christians. But her humane instincts prompted her to take 
the question out of the hands of the referees, and with a 
sense of right which must ever hold her name among the 
justice-loving rulers of all the ages she liberated the cap- 
tives and thereby established a precedent and rule which 
reflect the brightest luster upon her reign. 

Among other instructions which she gave Aguado was 
one to limit the colony at Isabella to five hundred souls, 
that the expenditure for provisions and supplies might be 
kept within the smallest limit ; and she especially charged 
him to sec that the rights of the islanders were justly ob- 
served, to the end that peace might reign and the Church 
be established among them. 



2^2 COLUMBUS. 

Meanwhile affairs in San Domingo had been tending in 
such a direction that another crisis was about to arise in an 
unexpected manner. An officer named Miguel Diaz fell 
into a quarrel with another officer, and in the duel which 
followed he wounded his antagonist, as he supposed fatally. 
Some witnesses of the affair claimed that advantage had 
been taken by Diaz, so that the circumstance had the com- 
plexion of murder; and to escape a punishment which he 
thought might be inflicted he fled from the settlement and 
took refuge in an Indian town on the extreme southern 
border of the island, where he was well received and safe 
from pursuit. It chanced that the tribe on this coast was 
governed by a princess, who became infatuated with the 
white refugee, and whether this feeling was reciprocated or 
not, Diaz was married to her in some informal manner and 
continued to reside in the village for some time. At length, 
however, he wearied somewhat of his Indian bride, which 
she perceiving, employed all her instincts and talents to 
devise some plan by which to hold the affections of her 
white husband. She had learned through her intercourse 
with Diaz that the prevailing passion with the Spaniards 
was a desire for gold. She therefore conceived that by 
revealing the fortunate resources of the territory over which 
she ruled she might bring hither a colony of Spaniards with 
whom her husband could affiliate and be at peace. As a 
matter of fact, the province which the princess governed 
was the richest in gold-dust of all the districts of the island. 
Indeed, as the sequence shows, an ancient race, long before 
the incoming of the present islanders, had discovered the 
riches of this shore, and gathering much of its treasure had 
left behind their mining pits as the unmistakable evidences 
of their work to after times. This fact the Indian princess 
revealed to Diaz, whom she begged to bring his countrymen 
and abide with her forever. 



THE NEW WORLD. 



-/ J 



To verify his wife's assertions Diaz paid a visit under the 
directioii of s^uides to the district wliich she had described. 
There, to iiis amazement, he found gold scattered every- 
where, and tliat the particles were much larger than any 
that had been found in the mines of Cibao. The Spaniard 
at a glance perceived that the discovery, if once known at 
Isabella, would produce the greatest excitement and perhaps 
lead to a transfer of a large part of the colony. To this 
tremendous motive there was also added another considera- 
tion, and that was the unhealthfulness of the northern coast 
where the colony was established, while here, on the River 
Ozema, the breezes were healthful and every prospect 
pleasant. All this did Diaz consider as an argument which, 
he was confident, would secure his pardon for the crime 
with which he was charged at Isabella. 

Before Diaz could put his plans into execution Aguado 
arrived on the coast of Hispaniola, whose presence for the 
time being repressed the desire which Diaz had to com- 
municate his fortunate discovery to the colonists. At the 
time of Aguado's arrival Columbus was conducting an ex- 
pedition into the interior of the island, leaving Bartholo- 
mew, his brother, exercising the office of Adelantado in his 
absence. 

Aguado, instead of coming as the friend of Columbus, 
was so exv'\lted by the authority which had been placed in 
his hands that he assumed the bearing of a dictator, and 
presenting his credentials from the King and Queen to 
Bartholomew Columbus, he claimed the authority that had 
been delegated to the viceroy. The colonists at once per- 
ceived that so far as Columbus was concerned and his gov- 
ernment of the island, this assumption of power was the 
practical overthrow of his rule. No sooner was this dis- 
covery made than all the pessimistic diabolism of the colony 

came to the surface. Order was at an end and all author. 
x8 



274 COLUMBUS. 

ity set at naught. A state of circumstances immediately 
supervened on which Aguado might well have based a 
truthful report of anarchy. Placing himself under the in- 
fluence of malcontents and criminals, this royal agent went 
about to organize a constitution embodying all the vicious 
principles of the malevolent band who from the beginning 
had used their efforts to overthrow Columbus. He besfan 
also to gather materials for a tremendous incriminating report, 
which he expected to make to their Majesties against the 
man who had recommended him to them for promotion. 

Of all this Columbus for the time knew nothing. But it 
was spread abroad that he had heard of the coming of 
Aguado and, knowing himself superseded, had personally 
absented himself from the colony to avoid arrest. Instead 
of this being true, however, as soon as the Admiral learned 
of the high-handed business that had occurred at Isabella, 
he at once proceeded to that place and presented himself 
before Aguado. There was much expectation of a square 
issue, perhaps of violence, between the two men. But the 
Admiral forestalled such a sensation by asking in a mild 
and complacent manner to hear the reading of Aguado's 
commission, and when this request was granted he declared 
his perfect deference and respect to the will and purpose 
of their Majesties. While this conduct in a measure dis- 
armed the malice of Aguado, the Spaniards looked upon 
Columbus as a fallen man, for they had no doubts that the 
reports which had been carried to Ferdinand and Isabella 
by Margarite and Buyl had sufficed to work his ruin. 

The effect upon the natives was even more disastrous. 
The caciques and head men began at once to take counsel 
how they might throw off the Spanish yoke and regain their 
independence. All these discontents, threatenings, mut- 
terings and rising troubles were so much pabulum to Aguado, 
who soon gathered all the desired materials and informa- 



THE NEW WORLD. 275 

tioii and reckoned himself ready to return to Spain. He 
accordingly prepared his ships and was about to sail when, 
without warning, the sky grew black on the side of the east, 
the sea and the heavens began to commingle and roar, while 
the lightnings blazed and a terrific hurricane such as not 
even tradition had ever before recorded burst along the 
coast. The havoc was astounding. The ocean rolled in 
landward, deluging the lowlands for miles from the shore. 
The forests were torn and twisted out of the semblance of 
nature by the irresistible winds ; dwellings were blown 
away like bunches of straw ; and worst of all, the ships in 
the harbor, with the solitary exception of the little Nina of 
blessed memory, were dashed to pieces. After some hours 
of this terrible work the tempest went on its way to Cuba, 
and Aguado and his proposed report were indefinitely 
stranded. 

It now remained for the Admiral to reorganize the re- 
sources of the colony, and even to provide for the home 
voyage of his adversary. To this end he ordered that the 
Nina should be repaired, and that the timbers of the 
wrecked vessels should be collected for the construction of 
another ship, which he named the Santa Cruz (Holy Cross). 
At length, the work having been completed, preparations 
were made to sail. But it was the purpose of Columbus 
to take one of the ships for himself, leaving the other to 
Aguado, the Admiral having made up his mind that the 
royal emissary should not return to Spain alone. He also 
would go thither and confront Aguado in the very court 
and before their Majesties. In the meantime, however, 
destiny had prepared for him an argument of more solid 
structure than any which his sanguine nature had been able 
to devise. Now it was that young Miguel Diaz, having 
heard of the disaster and discontent at the colony, had 
arrived at Isabella from the new gold fields of the River 



\\ 



276 COLUMBUS. 

Ozema, thinking that the time was most propitious for the 
plans which he had conceived. As fortune would have it, 
the soldier whom he had wounded as he supposed to death 
had recovered, so that to his surprise Diaz could return to 
the colony without being under the reproach of a serious 
crime. He at once communicated to tiie Admiral and his 
brother Bartholomew the tidings about the new discovery 
of gold. This intelligence was accompanied by the presenta- 
tion of many fine specimens of the precious metal, so that 
nothing was left for skepticism. So often had he been 
deceived, however, that Columbus deemed it expedient to 
dispatch Bartholomew and a company of experts to make a 
thorough examination of the new mines, to the end that his 
information might be definite and exact. 

The explorers crossed the island without accident and 
arrived at their destination on the southern coast about two 
hundred and forty miles distant from Isabella, where they 
found everything as Diaz had represented. Not only were 
evidences of gold to be found in great abundance, but 
particles were picked up without difficulty and in a fair 
measure of abundance. This distribution of gold was found 
to be uniform over a district or territory about six miles 
square, where Bartholomew discovered many old mining 
pits in which the workmen of a vanished race had toiled and 
gathered the precious metal ages before the coming of 
Columbus. The company of explorers were able to gather 
and take away such considerable quantities of gold as to 
furnish the Admiral with a visible proof of the value and 
promise of the new discovery. With these valuable speci- 
mens, which were to prove a blessing to Columbus in the 
hour when he should meet the Spanish sovereigns to give 
account of his stewardship, he prepared hia ships, also taking 
on board a cargo of trophies, including Caonabo, his brother 
and nephew, and Carib Indians to the number of thirty. 



THE NEW WORLD. 277 

There had been so much sickness and melancholy in the 
colony that when the ships were ready to sail a majority 
entreated Columbus for permission to return home, and not 
being willing to oppose these requests in the presence of 
Aguado, who might construe the act as cruel, Columbus 
granted the privilege to nearly all those who asked. For 
this reason the ships were crowded with passengers whose 
disappointment and grief might well have darkened any 
voyage. 

On the loth of March, 1496, the two vessels departed from 
Isabella and set out to sea, bearing towards the south. 
Had the Admiral veered toward the north he might have 
escaped the adverse trade winds and found free sailing 
towards the European coast. Taking the other route, 
how^ever, the eastern winds struck his vessels and constantly 
pressed him back among the Caribbean Islands, so that, all of 
March and the first week of April, the vessels made scarcely 
any progress whatever. In fact, on the 9th of April the 
Admiral found himself on the coast of Maria Galante, which 
he had named in the early part of his second voyage. On 
the next day he was at Guadaloupe, where the ships were 
anchored and exploring parties sent on shore. Their recep- 
tion by the islanders was as hostile as it had been two years 
previously, and descending to attack, the Spaniards opened 
fire upon the savages, who fled into the interior and took 
refuge in their village, which stood nearly a league from the 
shore. 

The Spaniards, making an incursion some miles from the 
beach, discovered honey in considerable quantities, and at 
one of the villages they found implements apparently of 
iron (probably iron-wood), and the limbs of human beings 
roasting on spits before the fire, where they had been 
abandoned by the Indians at the approach of the white 
visitors. 



278 COLUMBUS. 

Several wild exploits characterized this visit of the Span- 
iards, who, not being able to come in contact with the In- 
dian men, succeeded in capturing a band of native women 
and boys. Among the former was one who had the appear- 
ance of a savage princess. At all events she was an abo- 
riginal Bellona, whom the whites had great difficulty in 
capturing. Outstripping all her pursuers except one fleet- 
footed Spaniard, she suddenly turned round, and seizing him 
with the clutch of a tiger was about to strangle him to 
death, and would no doubt have succeeded but for the timely 
arrival of his companions, who relieved him from his danger- 
ous situation. This company of women and boys was taken 
on board the Admiral's ships, but he immediately set them 
all at liberty in obedience to the orders which he had 
received from the Queen. The Amazonian princess, how- 
ever, became acquainted with the captives on the vessel, in 
particular with King Caonabo, with whom she fell wildly in 
love and refused to return on shore, thus casting in her lot 
with the other captives. On the 20th of April the squad- 
ron finally cleared the islands and stood ofi for Europe, but 
a more tedious voyage or one ultimately attended with 
greater hardships has rarely been known. Progress was 
particularly slow and the voyage was so long protracted 
that both crews and passengers were reduced to a short 
allowance through the failure of provisions. Week after 
week passed, and when the first of June came the condition 
of the crews and passengers was horrible in the extreme. 
A rage of hunger began to prevail over reason, until at last 
came the suggestion of that very cannibalism which the 
Spaniards had observed among the Caribbean islanders. 
Some of the sailors began to look askance at the Indian 
prisoners, and then the proposal was oj^enly made that they 
be killed and eaten. This proposition, however, Columbus 
strongly resented, and when the enraged men were disposed 



THE NEW WORLD. 279 

to execute their threats in defiance of his orders he put 
himself between them and the cowering Caribs, exhibiting 
at once such dignity and resolution that the sailors shrank 
from his glowering gaze. Next the men proposed that the 
Indians should be thrown overboard, that the consumption 
of food might be thus diminished. But this proposition 
was likewise refused by the Admiral, and the mutinous spirit 
of the men rapidly increased. In an hour when hunger and 
rage were upon the point of manifesting themselves in vio- 
lent action the Admiral perceived from his chart that the 
vessels were near Cape St. Vincent. He tried with this 
assurance to soothe the rage of the crew, but they only 
mocked at his hopefulness and faith. With the coming of 
the evening he ordered the taking in of sails lest the vessels 
might in the darkness be run upon the rocks of the expected 
shore, which orders the men obeyed with sullen looks. But 
in the morning there, sure enough, rose St. Vincent from 
the sea, and the usual reaction from despair to confidence 
was exhibited by the men gathering around Columbus and 
apologizing for their insubordination. 

It was the nth of June when the harbor of Cadiz was 
reached and the storm-shattered ships brought to safe 
anchorage. Such was the pitiable condition to which both 
passengers and crew had now been reduced that the going 
ashore was a spectacle most melancholy and disheartening. 
Nor may we conclude this narrative of the second voyage 
without noting the end of Caonabo. That haughty chieftain 
had maintained his indignant but silent anger against the 
Spaniards until his barbaric pride at last yielded to death, 
which occurred just before the completion of the voyage. 
By his side in his last hours were assembled his brother, his 
nephew, and the Amazonian princess of Guadaloupe, and 
the other captives. Thus he expired — perhaps the bravest 
and most capable chieftain of the West Indies. Certainly 



28o COLUMBUS. 

his character was of a kind to impress itself strongly upon 
the minds and memories of the Spaniards, who could but 
hold him in respect for his courage and manly bearing. His 
body was committed to the sea ; there in that deep, oozy 
bed which has swallowed up in everlasting silence so many 
of the secrets and tragedies of human life, the Carib King 
of Cibao sleeps until the final day, while — 

" Descends on the Atlantic 
The gigantic 
Stonn>wind of the Equinox." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Fame is as fickle as fortune and rarely more endurino-. 
Like the flower that blooms in beauty for a season and is 
cut down by chilling frosts, so does fame perish under the 
withering breath of calumny and envious rivalry. Rewards 
for great deeds are rarely bestowed upon the living, so slow 
is man's appreciation, the disposition of mankind being to 
withhold acknowledgment of dues, to confer apotheosis 
after death, when jealousy has nothing more to feed upon. 
How singularly trite do these observations appear when we 
apply them to the life of Columbus! In the beginning, so 
obscure as to invite the ridicule of dignitaries when appeal- 
ing to the great for recognition of his beneficient scheme ; 
in his success raised to such eminence as won the homage 
of the world when even royalty would pay to him a degree 
of reverence. But while winning renown the sleuth-hound 
of vindictive envy was pursuing with relentless muzzle of 
hate to tear with teeth of spite and malice his reputation 
and bring him into national disrepute. 

So well had the power of malevolence been exercised by 
his enemies that when Columbus landed from his second 
voyage there were none to give him becoming welcome ; 
none to offer congratulations ; no royal messenger to greet 
his return. Stung by the deceits of those who should have 
been his votaries, and overwhelmed by the success of his 
traducers, Columbus for a while seriously contemplated re- 
tirement from the vanities of the world within the con- 
vent walls of La Rabida, whither his best friend. Father 

281 



282 COLUMBUS. 

Perez, had returned to end his days. To this purpose he 
adopted the garb of a Franciscan monk and wrapped about 
him the cord of consecration, intending henceforth to de- 
vote himself to pious contemplation, trusting in God to re- 
ward the services which those who were most advantaged 
by them neglected to recognize. 

Informing the Spanish sovereigns of his arrival, it was 
not until one month afterwards that a reply came to his 
notification in the form of a message written from Almozan, 
which was manifest proof that the director of marine had 
awaited the report of Aguado, as well as statements of others 
who had proved themselves hostile to his acts and purposes, 
before giving him any recognition. But strange as it may 
appear, the royal message, tardy as it was, felicitated him 
upon his successful voyage and invited him to repair at 
once to Burgos, where the court had a temporary residence. 
So encouraging and congratulatory was the letter that 
Columbus, roused from his despondency, cast aside his 
Franciscan habit and proceeded at once to Burgos, carry- 
ing with him the rich trophies of his second expedition, 
among which were many masks and nuggets of gold to please 
the avaricious eyes of Ferdinand. Several of the Indian 
captives also accompanied him, including the brother of 
Caonabo, who wore around his neck a chain of gold weigh- 
ing six hundred castellanos, equal to the value of $3,200. 

Greatly to his delight, Columbus was received by Isabella 
with many marks of admiration, as if to show him that her 
faith in his integrity and noljle intentions had not been af- 
fected by the base charges of his enemies ; and with a feel- 
ing of thankfulness and pride he narrated to their High- 
nesses his new discoveries among the Antilles, and presented 
the valuable as well as many curious specimens which he 
had brought from the New World. Ferdinand was sensibly 
touched by the nuggets of gold that were shown in proof 



THE NEW WORLD. 283 

of Columbus' statements concerning the wealth of Hispan- 
iola, but Isabella's interest was excited most by the many 
curious objects exposed, including images, weapons, birds, 
animals and plants, of which Columbus brought a large 
collection. So pleased were the Spanish sovereigns with 
the interview that in dismissing Columbus they took occa- 
sion to publicly honor him to the great confusion of his 
enemies. 

A week later the Queen consulted Columbus, by letter 
written from Laredo, as to the best route to be taken by 
the fleet of one hundred and thirty vessels commissioned 
to convey to Flanders the Infanta Dofta Juana, affianced 
to Archduke Philip of Austria, which furnished additional 
evidence of her confidence in him as a faithful servitor. 
But while Columbus was grateful for these royal kindnesses, 
he chafed under disappointments which threatened the 
colonists in Hispaniola. On arriving at Cadiz he found 
three caravels, under command of his old pilot, Pedro Alonzo 
Nino, ready to sail with supplies for the colonists, and was 
barely able to receive dispatches intended for him and to 
transmit a few additional instructions to his brother, Don 
Bartholomew, before the flotilla departed. These supplies 
were sufficient to meet present emergencies, but the neces- 
sity for Columbus' quick return to Hispaniola was still very 
great, because he had left the island in a disturbed state, as 
already explained, and in case the islanders rose in rebellion 
or withheld supplies the colonists would be in a dangerous 
situation. He had therefore expected to meet his accusers 
at the Spanish Court, clear his good name, recruit a large 
additional force, and with a fleet well laden with stores ac- 
complish his return to Hispaniola in less than three months. 
Instead of realizing his expectations he found no opportu- 
nity to present his requests to the Queen, whose urgent 
engagements gave her no time to consider his needs. He 



284 COLUMBUS. 

was therefore compelled to wait in silence, to restrain his 
impatience, and trust to time for a favorable presentation 
of his necessities. Month after month thus slipped by until 
autumn arrived, and nothing was as yet done towards secur- 
ing a fleet of vessels. When at length application was made, 
Ferdinand met the request with the statement that the con- 
dition of the public treasury would not permit of the equip- 
ment of another squadron ; besides, neither vessels nor 
men were procurable for the purpose. 

In his dilemma Columbus finally found opportunity to 
appeal to Isabella, who promptly responded with an advance 
of six million maravedis from the treasury of Castile ; but 
about this time, October 20th, Pedro Alonzo Nino returned 
from Hispaniola, and proceeding to his home, sent a letter 
to the court announcing that he had a large amount of gold 
on board his ships. Upon receipt of this news Ferdinand 
diverted the six million maravedis contributed by the Queen 
to perfecting the fortifications of Roussillon, threatened by 
the French, and ordered that a like sum be supplied to Co- 
lumbus from the gold brought by Nino's caravels. Thus 
affairs rested until the latter part of December, when it was 
ascertained that the large amount of gold which Nino 
claimed to have brought from Hispaniola was in the form 
of three hundred Indian captives, which he explained might 
be converted into the treasure of which he cxultingly spoke. 

This harmful metaphor, or rather absurd hyperbole, threw 
Ferdinand into a fit of rage, while the Oueen was both 
angered and chagrined, and Columbus was grieved beyond 
expression. Isabella, mild in manner and always generous, 
was nevertheless prompted to punish the presumption of 
Nino, or whoever was responsible for the violation of her 
orders, and she was only persuaded from such a course by 
the defense that was set up, wherein allegation was made 
that the Indian captives were charged with the murder of 



THE NEW WORLD. 285 

many Spaniards, who had been brought to Spain for sen- 
tence, enslavement being the most fitting punishment. 

After his awakening from a golden dream, the enemies 
of Columbus assailed him anew with increased disparage- 
ment and virulence, but Isabella continued steadfast in her 
friendship through all the evil report that mendacity could 
devise. But she was not able to give him substantial en- 
couragement until April 23d, 1497, when she issued an ordi- 
nance for the purchase of supplies for the expedition and 
granted permission to the Admiral to enlist under pay of 
the crown three hundred and thirty persons, representing the 
various trades, who should become colonists of the Indies ; 
at the same time reaflfirming all the privileges granted to 
him by the compact signed at Santa Fe five years before. 
But it now became necessary to make some modifications 
in that agreement, because Columbus had been unable to 
carry out his part of the covenant. He joyfully accepted 
the conditions, which were indeed of his own proposing, 
that for an eighth of the revenue accruing from his explora- 
tions he was to provide a like part of the expense, but to 
his mortification his expeditions, while of great geographical 
importance and prospective commercial value to the Spanish 
Crown, had not been attended by those profits which his 
over-sanguine mind had pictured, and hence he was too 
poor to comply with his agreements. Thus was he therefore 
still dependent upon the Queen's bounty, even as much 
as when a petitioner for royal patronage under which to 
equip his first expedition. 

Queen Isabella was as magnanimous as she was pious, 
and being appreciative of the honor which his glorious deeds 
had conferred upon her crown she remitted that part of the 
agreement which imposed pecuniary obligations upon Co- 
lumbus, and yet confirmed to him not only the rights stip- 
ulated in the original compact but also made a generous 



286 COLUMBUS. 

tender to him of a dukedom in Hispahiola, comprising a 
tract one hundred and fifty miles long by half as many 
wide. This kindly proffer, however, he declined, foreseeing 
that its acceptance would only serve to expose him to more 
malignant attacks of his enemies, who would make the most 
of such a gift as an evidence of his sordid ambition. But 
the Queen, anxious to show her regard for his unselfish 
service, granted to him the right of perpetual entail of his 
estates and titles, and at the same time rescinded the pre- 
rogatives given in 1495 to other explorers to make dis- 
coveries in the New World. 

In the exercise of the privilege the Queen had in her 
magnanimity conferred, Columbus executed his will at Se- 
ville in April, 1498, by which he made a devisement to his 
male descendants and in default of these to his female line- 
age, of all his property, titles, royalties and benefits accruing 
under the terms of his agreements with the Spanish crown. 
By this testament he provided generously for his brother 
Bartholomew, then serving as Adelantado or governor in 
his absence at Hayti, and likewise settled bountiful portions 
upon his sons Diego and Fernando, though the bequests Avere 
of properties prospective rather than real. His relatives at 
Genoa were also remembered liberally, after which he set 
aside one-tenth of all the revenues that remained for char- 
itable purposes. Nor did he forget to provide for the exe- 
cution of his controlling ambition, which was the recovery 
of the Holy Sepulcher, to which end his will contained a re- 
quest that Diego, or whoever inherited his estate, should 
invest whatever moneys he could spare in the stock of the 
bank of St. George at Genoa, there to remain as a permanent 
and growing fund until it could be used in reasonable effort 
to accomplish the conquest of Jerusalem. If the king did 
not undertake the recovery, then at an auspicious time 
Diego himself was charged to set on foot a crusade at his 



THE NEW WORLD. 28/ 

own risk and invite other sovereigns to join him in wresting 
the holy shrine from the profanation of infidels. 

The hopes renewed by these evidences of the Queen's 
regard lifted Columbus again into latitudes of golden ex- 
pectation, a felicitous feeling which was further accentuated 
by official permission to equip another expedition at govern- 
ment expense, consisting of three hundred and thirty per- 
sons in the royal pay, and a fleet of six vessels ; of those to 
be enlisted for the expedition, one hundred men v/ent as 
foot-soldiers, and there were forty servants, thirty sailors, 
thirty cabin boys, fifty agriculturists, twenty miners, twenty 
mechanics, ten gardeners and thirty females. As an in- 
centive to enlistment Columbus was authorized to grant 
lands to those desiring to engage in agriculture, and to issue 
patents after an occupation of four years. 

But while the interests of the colonists were thus pro- 
moted by generous concessions, the Queen showed her care 
for the natives by charging Columbus to treat them with 
the greatest leniency, and to see that their religious instruc- 
tion was attended to ; in short, to conciliate them by acts 
of kindness and in no case to exercise harshness except as a 
last resort in restraint of rebellious or murderous propen- 
sities. 

The preliminaries having been arranged, Columbus pub- 
lished a call for volunteers under the royal manifesto, but it 
only served to bring him into unexpected difiRculties which 
threatened to abort all his plans. The activity of enemies 
operating to bring him into odium and to depict the world 
of his discovery as a land of misery, poverty, hardships and 
death, chilled the ardor of enthusiasts and adventurers so 
effectually that none could be induced to proffer their serv- 
ices. The sorry showing which Columbus had been able 
to make on his return from two expeditions likewise inspired 
ship-owners with caution, and these now hesitated to charter 



288 COLUMBUS. 

their vessels for such an enterprise. His plans being thus 
brought to an abrupt termination through the influences of 
envy and cowardice, Columbus was compelled to apply to 
the Queen for permission to impress men and ships for his 
service. This request was not fully complied with, but the 
second proposal that a company be recruited from con- 
demned criminals was accepted. Under this arrangement 
culprits convicted of crimes other than heresy, treason, 
counterfeiting and murder were permitted to enlist, and 
their terms of imprisonment were commuted to service under 
Columbus in the New World for periods proportionate to 
the atrocity of their crimes. 

But even after the required ships and recruits were ob- 
tained, vexatious delays continued to harass Columbus and 
threaten the departure of the expedition. A change was 
made about this time in the superintendence of Indian 
affairs which necessitated a withdrawal of commissions 
issued jointly to Columbus and Antonio dc Torres ; while 
Fonseca, one of Columbus' most bitter enemies, was rein- 
stated as De Torres' successor. The commissions and con- 
tracts had therefore to be issued anew, which it took some 
time to do. As if in confirmation of the old adage that 
troubles never come singly, in the midst of these annoy- 
ances the good Queen was overwhelmed with intelligence 
of the death of her only son and heir apparent to Leon and 
Castile, Prince Juan, whom Fernando and Diego had served 
as pages. To add to the woe that had crushed her great 
heart, her daughter, Juana, just married to the Archduke 
Philip of Austria, was seized by a mental malady that 
clouded her mind forever. 

Poor Isabella ! Even a queen filled with such tender 
graces as thine may not escape the blinding calamities that 
break the hearts of mothers whose throne is set up in the 
affections of their children. But bravely, as became a 



THE NEW WORLD. iS^ 

woman consecrated to the holiest service of God and man, 
she bore up under her afflictions, and though her eyes were 
filled with scalding tears her ears opened to the appeals of 
Columbus. She never forgot that across the great sea was 
a feeble colony possibly suffering, aye, dying, for want of 
supplies which she only could furnish. So, from the money 
which she intended as an endowment for her daughter Isa- 
bella, who was soon to marry Emmanuel, King of Portugal, 
she took enough to load two ships with supplies, and these 
were dispatched early in 1498 under the command of Pedro 
Fernandez Coronet. Then as an evidence of her special 
regard for Columbus she made Fernando and Diego pages 
in her own court. 

Fonseca spared no pains in his malignant effort to harass 
Columbus, which his new position enabled him to do so 
effectually that on several occasions the great mariner was 
so disheartened as to secretly resolve to abandon his enter- 
prise. And these resolutions would no doubt have deter 
mined his actions had they not been overborne by the kind 
encouragement of the Queen, for whom, especially under 
her afflictions, he entertained the tenderest attachment born 
of profound sympathy. But every harassment has an end, 
as life itself, and Columbus, after great length of time, found 
himself making progress. The six vessels were finally fitted 
for sea, crews and companies obtained, to which a surgeon, 
apothecary, physician, several priests and a band of musi- 
cians were added. 

The annoyances from which he had now suffered for two 
years were to continue even to the hour of his departure, 
and their effects were felt the remainder of his life. Among 
the pestiferous hirelings of Fonseca was a Christianized Jew 
named Ximeno Breviesca, who held the position of account- 
ant to his equally unworthy master. This most turbulent 
and insolent fellow seized the occasion to assail Columbus 



290 COLUMBUS. 

with all manner of vituperation, even at the time of weigh- 
ing the anchors, evidently obeying Fonseca's wishes to 
humiliate him before the people whom he had been ap- 
pointed to command. Incensed beyond the power of further 
control, Columbus struck down the wretch and administered 
to his contemptible body the kicks which he deserved. It 
was only the spirit of manhood asserting itself against the 
wolfish instinct of contumelious jealousy that had bitten his 
heels and showed its ravening teeth wherever he had gone ; 
but enemies turned this exhibition of outraged nature 
against him by pointing to the act as a proof of his over- 
bearing cruelty with which he had long been charged by 
his traducers. 



CHAPTER XV. 

The equipment of the expedition having at last been 
completed, Columbus ordered the anchors lifted and his 
fleet of six caravels departed on May 13th, 1498, from the 
harbor of San Lucar de Barrameda. Gayly the vessels 
trimmed their sails and swept out of the mouth of the 
Guadalquivir, past the old Moorish castle that stood com- 
manding the entrance to the harbor, a mute reminder of the 
commercial importance of the port before the invaders had 
been driven out of Spain through the persistent valor of 
Spanish arms. 

This third voyage of discovery was undertaken in pur- 
suance of two distinct purposes, namely : Believing that 
Cuba was part of the main continent with a severe trend 
towards the west, along which he had sailed a considerable 
distance, Columbus concluded that another continent lay 
somewhere towards the south, an opinion first advanced by 
King John II., of Portugal. This conjectured continent he 
now determined to seek ; but he was actuated to this search 
not merely by the honors such a discovery might bestow, 
for his ambition now took a more decidedly commercial 
turn, but also with the hope of being able to satisfy the 
covetous desires of Ferdinand and Isabella, who had become 
importunate for some compensation for the large expen- 
ditures which the two previous voyages had entailed. Co- 
lumbus was also greatly influenced by the opinion advanced 
by a philosophic lapidary, who maintained that all produc- 
tions of nature were sublimated by the rays of a torrid sun, 

291 



293 COLUMBUS. 

and that not only was vegetation forced into the greatest 
exuberance by the tropic heat, but that precious metals and 
stones were likewise produced in the largest profusion under 
the rays of a vertical sun. Towards the equinoctial line he 
accordingly bent his way in the belief that, discovering a 
southern continent he would find there in great abundance 
those precious articles which would enrich his sovereigns, 
and that while thus obtaining their favor he would also 
bring confusion to his enemies. 

The voyage was directed southward to Porto Santo and 
Madeira, now known as the Canary Islands, upon reaching 
which Columbus came unexpectedly upon a French warship 
that had just captured two Spanish prizes. He abandoned 
his purpose for the time being, and pursued the French 
vessel, the commander of which, having discovered the great 
odds against him, had sought safety in flight. Two days 
were thus lost. But Columbus had the satisfaction of 
recovering one of the Spanish vessels and seriously crippling 
the French cruiser. Turning south again, he proceeded to 
the island of Faroe, where he brought his vessels to for 
some needed repairs. He then decided to divide his fleet 
by sending three of the vessels, with all the stores that he 
could spare, directly to the colonists at San Domingo, w-hile 
he retained the other three to pursue the purpose for which 
the expedition was organized. 

The next detention occurred upon reaching the Cape 
Verd Islands, where he arrived on the 27th of June, and 
having taken in some additional supplies and a quantity of 
water, he set sail in a southwesterly direction until he fell 
into the calms, where his crew suffered all the agonies of 
extreme heat, and his provisions were so seriously injured 
as to render a great part of them unfit for human food. As 
they gradually advanced further into this fiery heat the 
fears of the sailors were increased, as they well might be, 



THE NEW WORLD. 293 

by the alarming effects which they now observed. The 
pitch with which the ships were smeared was melted and 
the seams opened, admitting the water, so that it was only 
by the most extraordinary exertions that they were kept 
afloat. So also the wooden vessels in which their store of 
fresh water was kept shrank until the hoops dropped off 
and the contents were wasted. Occasional showers fell, but 
these seemed rather to intensify than alleviate the dreadful 
heat, for the humidity of the atmosphere was thereby in- 
creased and rendered all the more oppressive. 

This alarming situation continued for eight days and was 
so debilitating that the superstitious crew concluded that 
they were upon the confines of that world to which lost 
souls are condemned, and Columbus was forced to exert all 
his persuasive influence to prevent them from leaping into 
the sea and thus concluding their insupportable misery. 
But as the crews of former expeditions had been relieved 
by changes which they had despaired of realizing, so at 
length they passed out of this intolerable condition and 
beyond the meridian of heat, emerging at last into a cooler 
atmosphere where a fresh breeze stimulated their hopes 
anew, and they proceeded with great encouragement out of 
their despondence. But the spoiling of the provisions ren- 
dered it necessary that Columbus should reach land as soon 
as possible, and accordingly he changed his course directly 
westward, in the hope of gaining some of the Caribbee 
Islands, where he might anchor and repair his vessels. 

Their progress, however, was slow, and food so scarce 
that serious alarm was renewed. But good fortune was to 
attend them in the hour of greatest despair, for on the last 
day of July a mariner of Huelva, named Alonzo Perez Niz- 
zardo, acting as watch on board the Admiral's ship, gave 
the signal of land ahead. Every eye was quickly strained 
westward, and to their inexpressible delight they saw the 



294 COLUMBUS. 

triple peaks of a mountain range rising from the ocean. By 
one of those coincidences which Columbus was always quick 
to discover and upon which his mind, still deeply immersed 
in the bonds of superstition, rested with so much confidence, 
these three mountain heights were imagined by him to 
answer to a vow which he had made that he would name 
the first new land discovered The Trinity. Accordingly he 
gave the name La Trinidad to the new island — for such it 
proved to be — and that name it has borne to the present 
day. A short sail to the westward brought him along a 
shore on which all the luxuriance of the tropical islands was 
exhibited, but no natives were visible. Further inland, 
however, villages were seen, but the people had taken flight 
and concealed themselves in the forest coverts. 

A voyage of several leagues was necessary before a safe 
landing-place was found, but a favorable anchorage was at 
length reached in a sheltered cove, on the banks of which 
was a luxurious vegetation, and running down the hillside 
was a brook of crystal water. Here the crews went on 
shore and collected native foods and laid in a supply of 
fresh water. But though many marks of human habitation 
were visible on every hand, the inhabitants continued to keep 
themselves so well hidden that not one was anywhere to be 
seen. 

A sufficient quantity of supplies having been obtained, 
the voyage was renewed, and presently scanning the south- 
ern horizon Columbus discovered the outline of a long, low 
country rising but a few feet above the sea but extending 
a distance which he estimated at twenty leagues. He did 
not doubt but that it was another of the islands so plenti- 
fully distributed in the western waters. It proved, in fact, 
a tongue of land stretching out from the South American 
continent, which for six years he had been half-consciously 
approaching. Reaching the southwestern extremity of 



THE NEW WORLD. 295 

Trinidad, another stretch of land was seen, the point of 
which was marked by a lofty eminence resembling a tre- 
mendous rock, separated from the mainland by a danger- 
ous channel through which the water was rushing with an 
ominous sound. Here the vessels were greeted by a boat- 
load of natives who paddled out in their canoes from the 
shore and hailed the ships, but in a tongue which the in- 
terpreters could not understand. Every inducement was 
offered the natives to approach, but they were extremely 
wary, holding their paddles ready for instant flight in case 
any movement was made to arrest them. The men were 
armed with bows and arrows, and some of them also had 
bucklers. Around their heads they wore rolls of cotton 
cloth fashioned somewhat like a turban, while their persons 
from the loins to the thighs were covered with colored 
clothing, in which respect they bore some resemblance to 
the fiercer natives that Columbus had met on the island of 
Cuba. 

In equipping the expedition Columbus had taken a band 
of musicians, appreciating how great was the influence of 
music upon the Indians with whom he had come in contact. 
Being unable to induce the new people to approach his 
vessel he now ordered his musicians on deck, and to the 
lively music which they produced the Spaniards executed a 
dance, but the significance of this action was radically mis- 
taken by the Indians, who instead of responding with some 
form of native music and jubilation, let fly a shower of ar- 
rows at the performers, which belligerent action Columbus 
met by ordering a discharge from his crossbowmen, where- 
upon the barbarians fled with great precipitation. They 
were afterwards induced to approach one of the smaller 
ships, the captain of which made them some presents of 
hawk-bells and looking glasses. But their confidence they 
strangely withheld, and when a boat was lowered to follow 



296 COLUMBUS. 

them to shore they took alarm, and gaining the beach ran 
into the woods and were seen no more. 

While lying at this point of land, which he called Cape 
Arenal, Columbus watched with great interest the ocean 
river v/hich was seen to rush between the island and the op- 
posite promontory. Acquainted though he was with ocean 
currents he had never beheld before such a turbulent and 
tossing rapid as was presented in this down-flowing channel. 
The seething salt sea river looked to him like a vast serpent 
rising and twisting between the two shores, on which ac- 
count he called the pass into this roaring channel Boca del 
Sierpe, meaning the Mouth of the Serpent. Notwith- 
standing the dangers which seemed to threaten a passage of 
this turbulent strait, Columbus was resolved upon gaining 
the mainland, but as a precautionary measure he sent for- 
ward one of the boats to make soundings, and was greatly 
pleased to find that instead of a reef the depth was fully 
ten fathoms, which fact served to prove that the disturbance 
of the water was due to the meeting of incoming tides and 
a counter current. Before entering upon the passage a 
striking and frightful portent occurred, which the Admiral 
thus describes: — *' Late at night," says he, " being on board 
my ship, I heard a terrible roaring, and as I tried to pierce 
the darkness I beheld the sea to the south heaped up in a 
great hill, the height of the ship, rolling slowly towards us. 
The ships were lifted up and whirled along, so that I felt 
that we should be engulfed in a commotion of waters ; but 
fortunately the mountainous surge passed on towards the 
mouth of the strait and after a contest with the counter 
current gradually subsided." Such tidal waves as CoJumbus 
thus described are of frequent occurrence on the coast of 
South America, to which they seem to be peculiar, though 
at rare intervals they have been seen along the shores of 
other tropical countries and even in mid-ocean. 



THE NEW WORLD. 297 

Fortunately he escaped injury by this awe-inspiring occur- 
rence, and setting his sails moved into the broad and open 
Gulf of Paria, or Gulf of Pearls, bounded on the east by the 
curving coast of Trinidad and on the north by the long- 
projecting peninsula of Carriaco. He had proceeded only 
a few leagues into the gulf when his attention was called to 
the appearance of the water through which he was sailing, 
and on testing it, to his great surprise he found it fresh, yet 
everywhere as far as his eye could discern was an open sea. 
He was struck by the anomaly of a fresh-water sea which 
was manifestly a part of the Atlantic, and he was therefore 
deeply anxious to pursue his inquiry to a solution of this 
singular mystery. He was not a long while, however, in 
concluding that he must be near a great continent, from the 
shores of which rushed down rivers in such great volumes 
as to overreach the sea and make the surface fresh, as it 
frequently is after a heavy rain. He sailed northward 
across the gulf, discovering that the passage from it led 
through another tempestuous outlet, even more threatening 
in appearance than was that of Boca del Sierpe. Rocks 
lined either shore, and the current was so swift that to this 
exit he gave the name of Boca del Dragon, signifying the 
Mouth of the Dragon. He did not choose to enter this 
passage at once, but continued westward on the side of the 
peninsula until he came to a district some parts of which 
appeared to be under cultivation. Before this alluring re- 
gion a landing was made and Columbus with several of the 
crew went on shore, this being the first time he had put his 
foot upon the soil of the great South American continent. 
Several natives were observed along the coast, but in every 
case they exhibited great timidity and took refuge in the 
forests whenever effort was made to approach them. 

As Columbus went further inland he found the country 
in such a state of cultivation as to indicate the great industry 



298 COLUMBUS. 

of the inhabitants. At length, by the offer of presents and 
pacific assurances, some of the Indians were induced to 
enter a canoe to visit the ships, when some of the Spaniards 
who were near by succeeded in capsizing the boat and cap- 
turing half a dozen of the natives, upon whom they 
showered every possible favor, and after loading them with 
presents sent them off to their friends, trusting that the 
result would be beneficial. And so it proved, for seeing 
how well the captives had been treated, their friends became 
more free in their intercourse, and at length a covenant of 
friendship was established whereby some of the natives acted 
as guides, and not only showed Columbus a considerable 
district of the country, but supplied him with information 
concerning its people and products. 

After a stay of a few days at their first landing place the 
vessels resumed their course until they came to another 
beautiful country, in which the landscape, as presented from 
the ship, was fascinating beyond anything the Spaniards had 
ever before beheld. The natives were also found to be 
friendly and very numerous, nor were they so timid as the 
other Indians whom Columbus had seen, for they sought 
intercourse with the Spaniards and presently came with a 
message from their cacique inviting the strangers to go on 
shore. The Admiral noted with delight that personal 
adornments, particularly collars and wristlets of burnished 
brass, were plentifully worn. But the natives insisted that 
these precious things were obtained from afar off and were 
the products of cannibal workmanship. Not so, however, 
with the pearls, which were now for the first time found in 
the hands of these Indians, for the natives assured him that 
they might be obtained in the greatest profusion among the 
oyster beds on the northern coast of their country, which 
was the peninsula of Carriaco. Presently came the Indian 
king himself, accompanied by his son, the prince, who 



THE NEW WORLD. 299 

having heard of the arrival of the white people upon the 
borders of his country, became anxious to see and welcome 
them. His conduct was that of a dignified official, appre- 
ciative of royal honors, and yet having a generous demeanor 
which immediately excited the admiration of Columbus. 
He extended an urgent invitation to the Spaniards to visit 
his capital and enjoy the pleasures of his board, which was 
accepted by a company of twelve ; but Columbus was at 
this time suffering so severely from gout that he could not 
accompany them. The Spaniards returned on the same 
evening with enthusiastic reports of the richness of the 
country and the abundance of the feast that had been set 
before them, besides collections of pearls, many implements 
of brass, also ornaments of the same, and not a few trinkets 
of gold. The manner of their reception was more refined, 
too, than any hitherto witnessed among the West Indian 
people. Nor was their visit entirely without profit, for they 
found the Indians glad to exchange their pearls and necklaces 
for such gewgaws as the Spanish visitors chose to offer. 
They also brought back to the Admiral, as presents, from 
the cacique, many pearls of very great size and fine quality, 
which Columbus treasured with sacred pride with the inten- 
tion of presenting them to her Majesty the Queen. 

The country was indeed so picturesque, productive and 
healthful that Columbus was for a while persuaded that he had 
discovered here the site of the terrestrial paradise, which 
legend had described as being in some inaccessible part of the 
earth, around which the air was freighted with most delicious 
perfumes and out of which four great rivers that watered 
the banks of Eden poured down their sweetened tribute to 
the sea. Indeed, several subsequent letters written by 
Columbus confirmed the impression which the rare sights 
that he beheld in this favored region excited in him. He 
could not but believe, up to the tiaie of his death, that he 



300 COLUiMBUS. 

had been thus permitted to approach as near to the Eden 
out of which sprang the mother and father of mankind as 
Moses had gained in his march towards the land of promise. 

Having sailed around the Gulf of Paria and finding him- 
self hemmed in on the western circle, he made his way 
northward through the Mouth of the Dragon, but not until 
he had first explored it by a boat and determined the depth 
of the channel. It was through this passage, as the reader 
may well discover from its position, that the tremendous and 
ever accumulating floods of the Gulf of Paria must find a 
vent into the open sea. So from south to north through 
the Boca del Dragon the water poured like the broken 
rapids of a great river. Indeed it were not far from truth 
to call the Gulf of Paria the bulb of that wonderful Gulf 
Stream which sweeps up the eastern coast of North America, 
spreads broadening across the Atlantic, and washes with its 
potent volume of tropical waters not only the British Isles 
but all the adjacent coasts of Europe. Threatening as this 
outlet appeared to be Columbus was nevertheless resolved 
to attempt its passage. His provisions were now almost 
wasted, and there were other reasons prompting him to 
return to San Domingo as soon as posssible. Trusting his 
vessels, therefore, to the current, they were swept out in 
safety, notwithstanding the fact that the wind was hushed 
at the most critical moment, preventing the pilot from 
giving the ships any direction. After gaining the open sea he 
discovered two other islands, to which he gave the names of 
Assumpcion and Concepcion, which are known in modern 
geography as Tobago and Grenada. 

Not being willing to abandon the country without in- 
forming himself more fully as to its pearl productions, he 
turned to the west and proceeded as far as the islands of 
Marguerite and Cubaqua. Here, much to his gratification, 
he discovered the pearl fisheries and saw a boat-load of 



i 



THE NEW WORLD. 301 

natives engaged in rifling the pearl oysters of their treasures. 
Making a stop here he opened communication with the 
Indians, and perceiving a woman around whose neck was a 
chain of unusually large and lustrous pearls, he induced her 
to come on board his ship and exchange her possessions for 
pieces of a colored porcelain plate which he broke up and 
distributed in barter for a large quantity of these precious 
products of the oyster. Three pounds of pearls rewarded 
him for this short stay among the natives, all of which he 
treasured for the benefit of Queen Isabella, and he was 
satisfied that had the time been at his disposal he might 
have gathered here a rich cargo of pearls. Several circum- 
stances, however, conspired to compel a resumption of the 
voyage. His ships were again in need of repairs ; there 
was danger that the remainder of the stock of provisions 
intended for the colonists would become worthless if the 
voyage were prolonged ; anxiety to learn the condition of 
affairs in Hispaniola ; and above all the condition of his 
health, demanded of Columbus that he should as soon as 
possible reach the colony and recruit from his exhaustion. 
His gout, too, was a constant torture, and he had suffered 
for weeks from an inflammation of the eyes that had almost 
destroyed his sight. In fact, so generally helpless had he 
become through these afflictions that he was incapacitated 
from duty, and turned over the charts, compass and sextant 
to other observers into whose hands he had to intrust the 
command of the vessels. 

Columbus had intended to sail direct to Ozema, the point 
where he had ordered a colony planted for the develop- 
ment of the gold mines of Hayna. But after a five days' 
sail he reached the southern shore of San Domingo at a 
point one hundred and fifty miles west of his reckoning, 
which was due to the westward sweep of the Gulf Stream, 
which he had not noticed and therefore had not estimated 



302 COLUMBUS. 

its influence. The point of San Domingo where the squad- 
ron came to anchor was the Island of Beata, from which 
point the Admiral sent a messenger on shore with a letter 
for Don Bartholomew, whom he expected to find on the 
west coast of the island. It was believed that the courier 
could reach the mines of Hayna before a squadron could 
make its way to that part of the island, an opinion which 
proved to be correct ; for after struggling eastward for some 
days along the shore a Spanish caravel came in sight 
bearing Don Bartholomew and others, who on receipt of 
the message had sailed to meet Columbus. The ship of 
the Adelantado returned with the Admiral's squadron to 
Ozema, where they arrived on the 20th of August, 1498, 
three months to a day from the time he set sail from San 
Lucar. It was well for Columbus that the protracted voy- 
age was at an end ; for the combined effects of old age (he 
was now about sixty-five years old), severe maladies and 
long exhaustion were upon him, and his condition was well 
calculated to excite the commiseration even of his enemies. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

During the two and a half years in which Columbus had 
been absent from Hispaniola many startling incidents had 
occurred on that island, in which the colonists had acted 
both whimsical and tragic parts. A company combining so 
many heterogeneous characters : the dissimilar qualities of 
pietist and criminal, the warring instincts of the cavalier 
and the peon, the adventuring sensualist and the avaricious 
hireling of cowardly men, could hardly give other expecta- 
tion than explosive and adventitious results in opposition 
to the animating objects for which as a body they osten- 
sibly contended. Some of these it is necessary should now 
be briefly noticed in order that the reader may be familiar 
with the new conditions with which Columbus had to con- 
tend upon his return. 

From Don Bartholomew the Admiral learned the course 
of events which had transpired during his extended ab- 
sence. Trouble, as might have been anticipated, had hov- 
ered over the island like a cloud. Bartholomew had con- 
formed in all good will to the wishes and directions of his 
brother, but the work had been attended with turmoil and 
distraction at every step. But in pursuance of his instruc- 
tions, the Adelantado had set out with a considerable force 
in the spring of 1496 to establish a fortress and colony at 
the gold mines of Hayna, leaving Don Diego Columbus in 
charge of the home government during his absence. 

On reaching the gold region Bartholomew selected a suit- 
able location and began the building of a fort, to which he 

303 



304 COLUMBUS. 

gave the name of San Christobel, Nvhich was presently re- 
named by the 'Spaniards the Fortress of the Golden Tower. 
For three months he prosecuted the work of establishing 
this new settlement, though attended with many difficulties, 
chief of which was the scarcity of supplies, which the Indians 
no longer furnished with a liberal hand at the mere bid- 
ding of the Spaniards. The hard lesson had been forced up- 
on the natives that their visitors were controlled by avarice, 
cupidity and cruelty, and they, therefore, became wary of 
dealing and communicating with men whom they had come 
to dread as evil spirits. The result was that provisions 
were only obtainable by purchase or through the exertions 
of foraging parties, and neither of these means could be 
depended upon to furnish such supplies as were urgently 
needed. The pressure of want, which at length approached 
near to a famine, compelled the Adelantado to leave ten 
men to hold the fortress of San Christobel while he de- 
parted with the main body of his colonists (about four hun- 
dred) to Vega Real, where he reckoned on procuring an 
abundance of provisions from the v.-ell-supplied towns of 
Guarionex. 

Don Bartholomew had another mission also in this part 
of the country. One clause of the orders received from 
the Admiral urged a prompt collection of the tribute which 
had been imposed upon the natives. Three months had 
now elapsed since the last payment was made, and another 
was due. Cibao and the Vega Real were the best fields for 
this harvest, and its exaction called for the presence of the 
Adelantado. In this service Don Bartholomew continued 
through the whole month of June, during which time he 
succeeded in gathering a goodly quantity of food through 
the assistance of Guarionex and his subordinate caciques. 

In the following month (July) the three caravels which 
had been dispatched from Spain under the command of 



THE NEW WORLD. 



0^3 



Niflo arrived, bringing a reinforcement of men and a large 
supply of provisions. But a considerable part of the latter 
had become spoiled during the voyage, a misfortune par- 
ticularly serious in a community where the least pressure 
of scarcity produced murmur and sedition. It was by this 
ship that the Adelantado had received letters from the 
Admiral, directing him to found a fortress at the mouth of 
the Ozema River, and further requesting him to send to 
Spain as slaves such caciques and their subjects as had 
been concerned in the death of any of the colonists. On 
the return of the caravels, the Adelantado dispatched three 
hundred Indian prisoners and three caciques under these 
instructions, which had formed the ill-starred cargoes about 
which Nino had made such absurd vaunting as though his 
ships were laden with gold, and which had caused such 
mortification, disappointment and delay to Columbus. 

Having obtained a considerable supply of provisions Don 
Bartholomew returned to the fortress of San Christobel, 
and then to the Ozema to choose a site for the proposed 
seaport. The mouth of the river afforded secure and ample 
harborage, while the river ran through a beautiful and fer- 
tile country, where, it was said, fruits and flowers might be 
plucked from overhanging trees, while sailing on the stream. 
This vicinity was also the dwelling-place of the female 
cacique who had conceived an affection for the young 
Spaniard, Miguel Diaz, who had enticed his countrymen to 
that part of the island. 

At the mouth of the river and on a commanding bank 
Don Bartholomew erected a fortress which was first called 
Isabella, but the name was afterwards changed to San 
Domingo, and was the origin of the city which still bears 
that name. Having made his fortress secure, the Ade- 
lantado left it in charge of twenty men, and with the rest 

of his force set out on an expedition to the country of 
20 



o6 COLUMBUS. 



Bchechio. who was one of the principle caciques of the 
island. His province, known as Xaragua, comprised a 
greater part of the coast on the west end of tlic island, and 
was the most populous as well as most fertile district, also 
I^ossessed of the most healthful climate in all Hispaniola, 
The manners of the people were hospitable and graceful, 
and being remote from all the fortresses they had had no 
close communication with the Spaniards, and had conse- 
quently remained free from the incursions of the white sub- 
jugators. With this cacique resided his sister, Anacaona, 
the widow of Caonabo, who, it will be remembered, so 
miserably perished on the ship during the return voyage of 
Columbus to Spain. She had taken refuge with her brother 
after the capture of her husband, and was most affection- 
ately regarded by him. Her name in the Indian language 
signified " The Golden Flower," a title which well became.her, 
since she is reputed to have been one of the most beautiful 
of women and possessed of a genius far in advance of that 
credited to her race. She was also of a poetic nature, and 
to her is ascribed the composition of many legendary ballads 
which the natives chanted at their national festivals. And 
though she had felt the heavy arm of the cruel and rapacious 
Spaniards her nature v/as so mild that she entertained no 
liostility towards the white men, rather regarding them 
with admiration for what she believed was their superhuman 
power and intelligence. Perceiving the futility of resisting 
the superiority of the invaders, she counseled Behechio to 
conciliate and foster the friendship of the Spaniards, and it 
was this influence which probably induced the Adelantado 
to undertake his present expedition. 

Don Bartholomew, however, did not neglect to employ 
the greatest precaution in his march to the dominion of 
Xaragua, and he used such imposing measures as had been 
found useful on former occasions. His cavalry he sent in 



THE NEW WORLD. 307 

advance, realizing the terror which a sight of horses inspired 
among the natives. These were followed by the foot sol- 
diers, who advanced in martial array to the sound of the 
drum and trumpet. After several days' march the Ade- 
lantado met the cacique Behechio, who had moved out of 
his capital with a great army armed with bows, arrows and 
lances, probably intending to offer opposition to an inva- 
sion of his domain ; though if so, he lost his resolution be- 
fore the formidable appearance of the Spaniards. First 
ordering his subjects to lay aside their weapons, he ad- 
vanced and accosted Don Bartholomew in the most amicable 
manner, and assigned as his excuse for his appearing in 
such force his purpose to subjugate certain villages along 
the river. The Adelantado was equally reassuring of his 
peaceful intentions, and a friendship having been cemented 
by mutual protestations, the cacique dismissed his army 
and sent forward messengers to announce the approach of 
the Spaniards and to make preparations for their suitable 
reception. In this wise the two armies marched together 
until they came at length to a large town beautifully situated 
near the coast, at a bay called the Bight of Leogan. Many 
accounts had been given the Spaniards of the extraordinary 
salubrity and softness of the climate of Xaragua, in one part 
of which was placed the Elysian fields of Indian tradition. 
They had also heard from natives who had traveled in all 
parts of the island of the incomparable beauty and urbanity 
of the inhabitants, which had inclined them to favorable 
prepossessions that they were now to see confirmed in 
a most lavish hospitality. Knowledge of the approach- 
ing army having been heralded, thirty females, wives and 
daughters of Behechio, sallied forth, singing their weird 
ballads and waving palm branches in consonance with the 
dreamy but rhythmic motions of their dancing. The mar- 
ried and unmarried were distinguishable by the garments 



308 COLUMBUS. 

which they wore, the former being designated by aprons of 
embroidered cotton which extended from the shoulder to 
the knee, while the young women had no other covering 
than a fillet around the forehead and their thick and lustrous 
hair which fell in waves from their shoulders, and in many 
cases extended below the waist. Their forms might well 
be called Hebeic, while their motions were sylph-like, their 
skin extremely delicate and their complexions a clear amber 
brown. 

Peter Martyr declares that the Spaniards, when they be- 
held these beautiful women issuing forth from the green 
woods, almost imagined that they beheld the fabled dryads 
and native nymphs and fairies of the fields sung by the an- 
cient poets — a delusion which might well be excused when 
we consider the Edenic surroundings, which were calculated 
to inspire the most practical and prosaic with poetic imagina- 
tions. As the women advanced they knelt before Don Bar- 
tholomew and then gracefully presented to him the green 
palms which they carried. They then divided, half on 
either side, to give place to Anacaona, who was now brought 
forward on a light litter or palanquin borne by six Indians, 
where she gracefully reposed until conducted into the 
presence of the Adclantado, when she advanced and grace- 
fully saluted him. She had on no other garment than an 
apron of various colors, made of cotton, but around her head 
she wore a garland of red and white flowers, while a wreath 
of fragrant and flaming blossoms bedecked her neck and 
arms. Her charm of manners was only equaled by the 
grace of her person, both of which were well calculated to 
infatuate even a less impressionable cavalier than Don 
Bartholomew. The gallant governor accepted her saluta- 
tion by kneeling in the most deferential manner and by 
taking her hand as a sign of his admiration and unalterable 
friendship. The ceremonies of reception having been con- 



THE NEW WORLD. 309 

eluded, the Spaniards were conducted to the house of Be- 
hechio, where an elegant banquet was served, consisting of 
a variety of sea and river fish, utias, a species of rodent 
resembling a rat, and a variety of fine fruits and roots, 
which were served in a manner that imparted delightful 
flavor to the meats. Another dish with which the Span- 
iards were thus for the first time made acquainted was the 
flesh of the iguana, a reptile most repugnant in appearance, 
but which is regarded as a special delicacy among the In- 
dians, who highly esteem it to this day. The Adelantado 
was the first of the Spaniards to taste of this strange ani- 
mal food. His stomach being well fortified by a fast of 
nearly twenty-four hours' duration, he found it to be highly 
palatable, and this opinion directly brought it into high 
repute among all the Spaniards. 

At the conclusion of the banquet the Spaniards were dis- 
posed among the several dwelling-houses of the inferior 
caciques, while six of the principal officers were lodged in 
the palace of Behechio. Here they were entertained for 
two days in the most hospitable manner, and during this 
time games and festivities were introduced for their enter- 
tainment. Among the amusements was a sham battle 
which, however, proved serious in its results, though this 
appears to have been the usual termination. A consider- 
able body of Indians armed with bows and arrows was 
divided into two squadrons, and marching double-quick 
into the public square a skirmish began, which, though 
somewhat tame in the beginning, directly became so excit- 
ing that the contestants fought with such earnestness that 
four were killed outright while twice as many more were 
seriously wounded. This fatal consequence did not appear 
to abate but rather added to the interest and pleasure of 
the spectators, and the battle would have continued longer 
had not the Adelantado opposed his objections to such 



3IO COLUMBUS. 

bloody sport and begged the cacique to terminate the ex- 
hibition. 

At the conclusion of the two days' visit Don Bartholo- 
mew thought it proper to communicate to the cacique and 
Anacaona the real object of his visit. He began by acquaint- 
ing them with the orders which he had received from his 
brother, which were to collect the tribute which had been 
imposed upon the tributary caciques of the island, for which 
purpose he had visited Behechio, under the protection of 
the Spanish sovereigns, to arrange a tribute to be paid by 
him in the manner most convenient and satisfactory. 

Behechio was somewhat embarrassed by this demand, 
not so much by the terms in which the request was con- 
veyed as the anticipations aroused by the sufferings which 
had been inflicted through the avidity of the Spaniards for 
gold upon the other caciques of the island. He, therefore, 
replied that he knew that gold was the object for which the 
Spaniards had visited his island and that many of the ca- 
ciques had paid their tribute in that precious metal ; but 
that, unfortunately for him, the value of his territory lay in 
its fertility rather than its products of gold, that his people 
had at no time followed mining, and that he doubted very 
much whether gold was discoverable in any part of his do- 
main. To this, however, Don Bartholomew replied by 
affecting the most amiable manners and assuring the chief 
that he had no intention of imposing a burden beyond his 
ability to discharge ; that while his sovereigns were pleased 
with tributes of gold, they were no less thankful for other 
products, and that they would esteem with equal favor 
tributes paid in cotton, hemp, cassava bread, or such other 
products as the country afforded. To this request the 
cacique gave a cheerful compliance and immediately issued 
orders to his subordinates commanding them to have the 
fields planted with cotton abundantly and thus prepare 



THE NEW WORLD. 311 

themselves to pay the necessary tribute in that staple. 
Thus by pacific measures and assurances Don Bartholomew 
had been able to accomplish that which others with a less 
generous mind were able to perform only through violence 
and rapine. Behechio had gracefully complied with the re- 
quirements, and at the same time his friendship had been 
made secure, a procedure and result which had not charac- 
terized dealings between the Spaniards and natives in other 
provinces of the island. 

Don Bartholomew had not been many weeks absent from 
Fort Isabella on his visit to Behechio, nevertheless when 
he returned a sorry condition of affairs confronted him. 
Many of the colonists had succumbed under climatic dis- 
eases, while a greater part were sick, and the lack of reme- 
dies or adequate medical treatment was emphasized by the 
insufificiency of food. The supplies brought out by Alonzo 
Niflo had been consumed and no effort made to replenish 
them by cultivating the fields, which needed but the plant- 
ing to bring forth in largest abundance. The Indians, un- 
used to work and outraged by their oppressors, fled to the 
mountains, preferring to brave the hardships of the fastnesses 
than to remain in their luxurious valley subject to the in- 
humanities of the Spaniards. With famine staring them in 
the face and the miseries of disease afflicting them, the 
colonists turned their angry complainings against the Ad- 
miral, whom they charged with luxuriating at the Spanish 
palace, courting the Queen's favors with stories of Indian 
wealth and aggrandizing himself with tales of his exploita- 
tions, leaving them to miserably perish of hunger through 
his neglect. Nor did Bartholomew wholly escape their 
censures, for they reckoned him as culpable, chiefly because 
he was brother to Christopher and likewise a foreigner. 

This was the condition in which the Adelantado upon 
his return found the colony planted with so much hope at 



312 COLUMBUS. 

Isabella ; but instead of reprimanding or stopping to plead 
his defense he set resolutely to work to remedy the situa- 
tion. First, he ordered the construction of two vessels 
which were to be used by the colony in sending its own 
messengers to Spain in case of necessity ; or, if urgency 
demanded, they might serve as a means of returning to 
Spain. Second, he caused all the sick and disabled to be 
removed to more salubrious districts in the interior, which 
served the double purpose of relieving the suffering, and at 
the same time dissipated the discouraging feeling which the 
appearance of the sick and dying had upon those not yet 
stricken down. Third, as a means of further promoting the 
security and comfort of the colony, Don Bartholomew con- 
ceived the enterprise of a general system of fortifications 
across the island. To this end five principal points were 
chosen, which were to constitute a chain of fortresses. 
Ninety miles from Isabella were laid the foundations of 
Fort La Esperanza; twenty miles beyond that was placed 
Fort Santa Catalina ; twenty miles farther inland was Fort 
Magdalena, where Santiago now stands, and fifteen miles 
from this latter, in the valley of Vega Real, was located 
Fort Concepcion. By this provision safe means of travel 
by easy stages was provided between Isabella and the new 
town of San Domingo. 

The wise policy of Don Bartholomew was productive of 
excellent results and was followed by immediate advantages ; 
but while thus guarding against one source of mischief by 
giving employment to the unemployed, and making his 
rule more secure against the power of the confederated 
caciques, a new and equally serious trouble arose which 
was attended with calamitous consequences. The imme- 
diate cause was due to the zeal of two priests, whose 
work was a reaction against the prelatic efforts of De Buyl. 
One of these friars was a hermit named Roman Pane, and 



THE NEW WORLD. 313 

the other a Franciscan proselyter known as Juan Borgonon, 
both of whom entered the villages of the Vega Real bear- 
ing tidings of new religious faith to the simple natives, who 
were little prepared to understand a religion professed by- 
men who had outraged every sense of justice and repaid 
hospitality by brutal license. But the labors of these two 
priests were attended with some success, for a single family 
of sixteen persons accepted the new faith, and being bap- 
tized, the head of this family received the title of Juan 
Mateo. 

The first fruits of their enterprise bore no promise of a 
prolific or even second crop, so the friars turned their atten- 
tion to another field. They rightly reckoned that the most 
direct way to the hearts of the natives was through their 
chiefs ; to gain the chieftain would be to gain the whole 
tribe; conversion might thus be undertaken after the man- 
ner which Charlemagne employed with the Saxons at the 
River Weser. Accordingly they directed all their efforts 
towards converting Guarionex, who, being a man of flexible 
mind, was directly impressed by the mystery of the new 
faith, and according to the measure of his intelligence he 
embraced the new doctrine and learned to repeat the 
Paternoster, the Ave Maria and the Credo. 

The news that Guarionex had been converted to the re- 
ligion of the Spaniards quickly spread through the province 
of Vega Real, but the result was not what had been antici- 
pated. The natives, who could not forget their wrongs, 
immediately construed the act as a renunciation of their 
cacique's nationality, and the subordinate chiefs were loud 
in their denunciations of his recreancy. But even while 
this charge of infidelity was sweeping through the villages 
of Vega Real an incident occurred which in a moment 
aroused all the ferocity and vengefulness in Guarionex's 
nature, and transformed him into the bitterest foe of every- 



314 COLUMBUS. 

thing that was Spanish. One of the officers at Fort Con- 
cepcion, which was scarcely four miles from the cacique's 
residence, contrived to ingratiate himself into the affections 
of Guarionex's favorite wife. The king was not long in 
discovering the guilty liaison, and his anger became at once 
as boundless as his wrongs, but helpless to avenge his dis- 
grace he could only drive the priests from his presence and 
await his opportunity. 

Seeing that their efforts in Vega Real must thereafter be 
attended with danger, the two friars went into a neighbor- 
ing province, taking Jean Mateo with them as interpreter, 
and there renewed their attempts to proselytize the natives. 
Here they erected a rude chapel to serve as a meeting, 
house, and at the same time as a shelter for such new con- 
verts as they might be able to win. But scarcely was the 
chapel finished for service when some of Guarionex's sub- 
jects pulled it down, seized the images and emblems, w^hich 
they buried in a neighboring field, and then returned and 
burned the ruins. This crime, in those days, called for a 
swift and awful retribution. Report of it was speedily 
made to Don Bartholomew at Isabella, who promptly 
ordered a judicial inquest to be made and the guilty pun- 
ished by burning at the stake. Horrible to be related, sev- 
eral natives w^ere adjudged guilty of the charge and suffered 
this inhuman punishment for their act. 

Can we blame the Indians that this last shocking injustice, 
this barbarously cruel deed, nerved them to the desperate 
undertaking of destroying every hated Spaniard who had 
invaded and despoiled their peaceful homes ? Guarionex, 
who was at once king and a principal sufferer, was besought 
to put himself at the head of a confederacy of all the tribes 
and lead them in one decisive attack on the foreigners. 
This proposition he gladly accepted, and it was arranged 
that the attack should be made on the next tribute day, 



THE NEW WORLD. 



0':) 



when it was the custom of the natives to gather in great 
numbers. But though the conspiracy was admirably con- 
ceived, there was one difficulty which the natives had neg- 
lected to provide against. In the multifarious relations 
which had now come to exist between the Spaniards and 
native islanders, it was impossible to prevent disclosure of 
the plan if generally known among the Indians themselves, 
for several of the Spaniards had native women for wives, 
while many others sustained the most intimate relations 
with them. These matrimonial unions were particularly 
dangerous to a plot like the one concocted, and we are not 
surprised, therefore, that before it could be put into execu- 
tion the Spaniards were apprised of their danger. The 
information being obtained, it was conveyed to Don Bar- 
tholomew by secreting a letter, in a hollow cane which 
was carried by an Indian pretending to be dumb and foolish, 
and safely delivered. That officer, equal to any emergency, 
organized a large force which he dispatched to the Vega 
Real district, and quietly distributed his soldiers among the 
villages where the inferior caciques had their respective 
residences. This being accomplished without exciting any 
uneasiness, on a fixed night and hour the soldiers invaded 
these houses, and seizing fourteen of the caciques bore them 
away to Fort Concepcion. As the Adelantado had antici- 
pated the Indians were terrified beyond expression by this 
abduction of their chiefs, and forgetting their revenge in 
this greater calamity they raised their voices in lamenta- 
tions and beseechings pitiable to hear. 

Don Bartholomew was present at the judicial inquest 
which followed, and by this examination he was made ac- 
quainted with all the causes and circumstances which led to 
the conspiracy. Feeling it imperative for the safety of the 
colony that an example should be made by a severe punish- 
ment of some of the leaders of the plot, he ordered the exe- 







i6 COLUMBUS. 



cution of two of the most vindictive chiefs, but magnani- 
mously pardoned all the rest. Nor would his sense of jus- 
tice permit the wrong that had been done to Guarionex to 
go unrevenged, and accordingly the Adelantado proceeded 
with stern measures against the Spaniard who had violated 
the sanctity of the cacique's home, but historians fail to 
mention the punishment that was inflicted. The clemency 
and justice of Don Bartholomew subdued the anger in 
Guarionex's heart, and that chief now earnestly exhorted 
his people to henceforth cultivate the friendship of the 
Spaniards, advice which was sincerely followed, and tran- 
quillity was thus happily restored without further effusion 
of blood. 

After this incident the Adelantado repaired to Xaragua 
with many of his soldiers, to receive the quarterly tribute 
which Behechio had notified him was ready for delivery. 
His reception on this second visit was equally as cordial as 
it was on the first, and the occasion was made one of much 
rejoicing. The natives gave an entertainment and great 
feast to their visitors, and were in turn amused by the 
Spaniards, wdio had brought up one of their ships to receive 
the tribute of cotton, which was sufficient to make a large 
cargo. The guns of the vessel were fired, to the great 
alarm of the natives, but they were reassured by acts of 
kindness extended by the Adelantado, who distributed 
presents among them and then had his soldiers execute 
maneuvers to manifest their skill in arms. 

While Don Bartholomew w^as absent in Xaragua a rebel- 
lion was incited by a Spaniard named Francisco Roldan, 
whose ambition had inspired him with the belief that he 
might take advantage of the disaffection of the colonists, 
and by subverting the authority of the Adelantado and Don 
Diego raise himself to the gubernatorial dignity. In pursu- 
ance of this mad purpose he succeeded in winning to his aid 



THE NEW WORLD. 317 

a considerable faction, and then detaching himself with forty 
well-armed followers from the main body, he boldly pro- 
claimed his intention to launch the remaining vessel and 
depart from the country for other fields, or take up his 
quarters in another part of the island. To prevent this act 
Don Bartholomew, who had now returned to Isabella, as- 
sembled seventy of the soldiers who remained loyal to him 
and prepared to give the conspirator battle. His force 
being as yet too weak to hazard an engagement, Roldan 
drew off and entered upon a systematic effort to attach the 
caciques to his fortunes, by promising to free them from 
the exactions laid upon them by their oppressors. But in 
these efforts he did not succeed ; whereupon he determined 
to proceed to Xaragua and there set up an independent 
government. Taking advantage of the Adelantado's ab- 
sence from Isabella, he suddenly made a foray upon the 
place, broke open the magazine and supplied his followers 
with arms and ammunition therefrom. He then attempted 
to launch one of the vessels drawn upon the beach, but his 
efforts were in vain, and fearing some surprise if he re- 
mained longer at Isabella, he returned to the interior with 
the purpose of putting into execution some strategy where- 
by he might gain possession of the person of Don Bartholo- 
mew, who was at Fort Concepcion, afraid to oppose the 
rebel with the restless few who composed the garrison. In 
a day after leaving Isabella Roldan appeared before Fort 
Concepcion, and vaunting his loyalty to the Spanish sover- 
eigns, used every artifice to corrupt the garrison, who for a 
while manifested a disposition to abandon their allegiance 
to the Adelantado. This, indeed, they would have no 
doubt done had not the sagacious governor met the induce- 
ments held out by Roldan with similar promises of reward 
for their fidelity. 

But though he was unable to corrupt the garrison at 



3i8 COLUMBUS. 

Concepcion, Roldan made headway by enlisting the co- 
operation of several chiefs, who supplied him generously 
with provisions and made the payments of tribute to him 
instead of to the lawful authority. In this contention the 
colony was brought to the verge of ruin, nor can we foresee 
how they would have escaped destruction had not the criti- 
cal situation been relieved at this juncture by the arrival at 
the port of Isabella of two vessels dispatched under com- 
mand of Pedro Fernandez Coronal with supplies, by order 
of the Queen, as already related. This happy event oc- 
curred on the 3d of February, 149S, and was the means not 
only of saving the colony from the disasters of rebellion, 
but Coronal brought, besides supplies and men, a commis- 
sion confirming Don Bartholomew's title as governor, thus 
relieving him of whatever cloud that rested upon the title 
conferred by the Admiral. 

Considering that the colony had already suffered all that 
it could well bear, Don Bartholomew, in his anxiety to 
reunite his men, sent Coronal with a pacific message to 
Roldan, requesting that he would submit to his authority, 
and promising pardon for all past offenses ; but Roldan 
rejected these overtures, and feeling secure in his plans he 
sowed the seeds of intrigue among the caciques, and then 
departed for Xaragua to take up his residence in that sen- 
sual paradise which had been the objective point of all his 
promises. 

The machinations of Roldan had been so well laid that 
Guarionex, who had been accounted as faithful to the 
authority of Don Bartholomew, organized a conspiracy for 
the capture of Fort Concepcion, being instigated thereto by 
Roldan's agreements to extend protection and relieve him 
from his vassalage to the usurping Spaniards. It was ar- 
ranged to assault the fort on the night of a full moon, but 
by some mistake an impetuous chief with a small following 



THE NEW WORLD. 319 

began the attack on the night preceding the appointed 
time, and they were easily repulsed by soldiers quartered in 
the village, while the garrison were thus timely put upon 
their guard. The chief who had thus unluckily anticipated 
the plans of the confederated caciques fled to Guarionex 
for protection, but that king was so incensed at his hasty 
conduct that he struck him dead upon the spot. Don Bar- 
tholomew novv- saw the futility of temporizing any longer 
with the conspirators, and having a strong force under his 
command, he set out first in pursuit of Guarionex. who, 
taking warning by the fate that had overtaken other chiefs 
who had opposed the Spaniards, fled with his family to the 
mountains of Ciguay. and there sought the aid of a cacique 
named Mayobanex. who lived at Cape Cabron. thirty miles 
from Isabella. This chief would not withhold his friendship 
in the hour of greatest need, and therefore not only gave 
Guarionex and his handful of followers an asylum but 
promised to protect them to the last extremity. 

By forming a junction with Mayobanex, who had a con- 
siderable force of hardy native soldiers, Guarionex was able 
to vex the Spaniards by cutting off straggling parties and 
destroying villages ; annoyances which Don Bartholomew 
resolved to prevent by sending a company of one hundred 
and fifty men into the mountain fastnesses to punish the 
guerillas. His advance was noted by Indian spies, and a 
big native army was gathered that hung upon his flank, but 
was concealed by intervening hills and dense vegetation 
until the time to strike was at hand. This opportunity was 
presented when tlie Spaniards began fording a stream of 
swift running water, and when everything indicated that 
they were least expecting an attack. In a moment six 
thousand hideously painted savages rushed out from their 
ambush and let fly a shov/er of arrows and lances, which 
wounded several of the Spaniards notwithstanding their 



320 COLUMBUS. 

armor. But the Indians were too timid to follow up their 
advantage, and retreated at the first fire of the enemy. The 
Spaniards pushed on up the valley towards Cabron, halting 
from time to time to repel the sorties of the Indians, who 
would rush down within arrow range and discharging a vol- 
ley would retire precipitately to their fastnesses, seldom 
doing any great mischief, however. 

At length the Adelantado approached within less than a 
mile of Cabron, where he halted and sent forward a mes- 
senger to Mayobancx, demanding of him the surrender of 
Guarionex, promising him pardon and friendship if the 
demand was complied with, but threatening a direful ven- 
geance if it was refused. With Spartan-like courage and a 
fidelity which may even amaze the civilized world, Mayo- 
banex returned this reply : " Tell the Spaniards that they 
are bad men, cruel and tyrannical ; usurpers of the terri- 
tories of others and shedders of innocent blood ; I do not 
desire the friendship of such men. Guarionex is a good 
man ; he is my friend ; he is my guest ; he has fled to me 
for refuge ; I have promised to protect him ; I will keep 
my word." 

Don Bartholomew could be stern when occasion appeared 
to him to justify vigorous measures, and seeing that further 
parley meant defeat of his purposes, he ordered the village 
to be set on fire, and then threatened Mayobanex with a 
still more terrible vengeance if he remained obstinate in his 
refusal to surrender to him the rebellious Guarionex. His 
subjects, alarmed, besought him to comply with this demand, 
as the safety of their homes depended upon it ; but however 
strong the pressure, his friendship for the unhappy chief 
was still stronger, and he vowed to defend his guest to the 
last, even though it should cost him his kingdom and his 
life. 

The torch of the Spaniards was now applied to all the 



Kicliiiis bv Russell. 



A BATTLE WITH THE BUCCANEERS. 



After the war between Cromwell and Charles I. niauy of those who had 
l^een soldiers in that conflict fled to the West Indies, that had become a 
field of valorous enterprise. The French and English were old time enemies 
and the Spaniards were covetous enough to engage in any service for 
personal profit. The result was war on the Spanish Main — buccaneering 
and piracy. One of the most distinguished of these freebooters was 
Henry Morgan, who organized a desperate band to capture the rich city 
,of Puerto del Principe in Central Cuba. The illustration represents a 
furious battle that took place one mile from the city, in 1650, between 
Morgan's men and a company of Spanish cavalry. The latter were 
beaten, after which Puerto del Principe was taken and sacked, the citizens 
beins subjected to the most horrible tortures to compel delivery up of their 
valuables to the pirates. 



11 



THE NEW WORLD. 321 

villages, while soldiers were sent to hunt down the two fra- 
ternal chiefs and their subjects. Abandoning the smoking 
ruins of their homes, the caciques and their followers fled 
to the mountains, where they were remorselessly pursued, 
until at last two Ciguayans were captured, and under threats 
of death were forced to pilot the Spaniards to a cave in 
which Mayobanex had taken refuge. The unhappy chief 
was taken by surprise, together with his family and a sister 
who had left her husband in a neighboring province to 
share the fortunes of her miserable brother. Her captivity 
was soon reported to her husband, who, loving her tenderly, 
visited the Adelantado and with prayerful entreaties be- 
sought him to release her, offering his allegiance and that 
of his subjects for her restoration. To these pleadings Don 
Bartholomew could not turn a deaf ear, for his compassion 
being aroused he restored her to her now overjoyed hus- 
band, an act which brought him a generous return in the 
fulfillment of all the promises of the cacique. 

Soon after this Guarionex was driven from his retreat by 
the pangs of hunger, and was betrayed by some Ciguayans, 
who regarded him as the author of all their miseries. He 
was by this means captured by a party of lurking Spaniards 
and carried to Fort Concepcion. This being his third 
offense, Guarionex expected nothing less than an extreme 
penalty ; but the Adelantado mercifully considered the 
causes which had led him into rebellion and again extended 
to him the fullest pardon, though he regarded it as prudent 
to detain both caciques for a time at Fort Concepcion as 
hostages to insure the fidelity of their subjects. 

This was the condition of affairs in the colony, which had 
been restored to a degree of tranquillity, with Roldan a 
fugitive, when Columbus returned, after an absence of nearly 
thirty months, to resume command. 
21 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Evil flourishes where virtue would perish from inanition. 
Circumstances more frequently favor the wrong than they 
encourage the right, because the wicked passions of men 
beget in them a cunning to turn even the most beneficent 
conditions to their advantage, thus extracting the bane of 
mischief from the elixir of rectitude. These observations 
were strikingly verified by the fortune which assisted the 
traitorous acts of Roldan, since one circumstance after an- 
other occurred as if by some maleficent spirit's direction to 
promote his infamous designs. 

When Columbus returned to Hispaniola his physical con- 
dition, which rendered him almost helpless, was not more 
deplorable than that of the colonists. Insurrection, rebel- 
lion and their attendant evils had left the Spaniards in a 
sorry and wretched plight, out of which they were not to be 
brought before greater suffering had been experienced. A 
heart less strong than Columbus' would liave lost all hope 
and abandoned further effort to establish a permanent set- 
tlement in the new world of his discovery. In every fort 
and station there were famine and insubordination ; the 
mines at Hayna were no longer productive; every industry 
languished ; the Indian villages were in ruins, while the 
natives, driven to the last extremity by their oppressors, had 
abandoned their fields and escaped to the mountains ; they 
were at peace now, but it was the peace that simulates 
death or hopelessness ; more than all this, the flower of the 
Spanish troops were in rebellion, thus dividing the strength 
322 



THE NEW WORLD. 323 

of the colonists and leaving them a readier prey to the 
miseries that were at hand. 

To a man ahnost blinded by ophthalmia and racked by 
the tortures of gout, as was Columbus, the picture was one 
of inexpressible sadness, but in such an emergency inaction 
meant destruction, so, enfeebled though he was by physical 
and mental afflictions, Columbus aroused all his energies to 
bring order out of this chaos of misfortune. His first duty 
was to ratify the acts of his brother Don Bartholomew, and 
then to inform himself fully respecting the rebellion of Rol- 
dan, and adopt measures, if possible, to punish the traitor ; 
but this, alas! he was not destined to accomplish. 

Carrying out his original intentions Roldan had taken up 
his residence in the province of Xaragua, where, not know- 
ing his defection, Behechio received him with the same 
hospitality he had shown towards the Adelantado. In this 
delightful retreat Roldan and his followers indulged their 
idle and sensual appetites, free from all restraints, account- 
ing themselves as the most fortunate of mortals, since 
Behechio supplied all their wants. 

Within a week after Columbus had returned to Hispani- 
ola some of Roldan's subjects, while walking along the beach, 
descried three vessels making towards the shore, which gave 
them some alarm at first, anticipating that it might be a 
part of the fleet of Columbus laden not only with supplies, 
but with men who might be sent to give them the punish- 
ment they merited. But Roldan was not so easily fright- 
ened, for with his resource of strategy he esteemed himself 
equal to any emergency. 

The three vessels proved to be those which Columbus 
had sent forward with supplies from the Canary Islands and 
which had been detained long beyond their time by heavy 
gales and contrary winds. Fortune had strangely directed 
them to the coast of Xaragua, as if fate was in league with 



324 COLUMBUS. 

evil to oppose the plans of Columbus. When they came to 
anchor off shore Roldan put out in a boat to welcome the 
Spaniards to the New World. A fellow of excellent ad- 
dress, he soon convinced the captains of the fleet of his 
trustworthiness and that he was in authority in that part of 
the island. Therefore, by representing his needs he pro- 
cured from the officers swords, crossbows, lances and a va- 
riety of military stores, at the same time craftily distributing 
many of his men among the vessels' crews to wean them 
from their allegiance to Columbus and to induce them to 
accept the free and delightful life which he had to offer 
them in Xaragua. When we consider that nearly all the 
men who had shipped on the vessels were criminals, and 
therefore possessed of the basest instincts, we cannot won- 
der that the flattering proposals made by Roldan's men 
readily influenced them to desert and join the rebels. 

For three days Roldan entertained the crews before 
Alonzo Sanchez de Carvajal, commodore of the fleet, dis- 
covered his real designs, at which time the mischief was 
consummated, for the rebel had received his supplies and 
had planted the seeds that were to bring him a great harvest. 
Contrary winds had also served Roldan beneficently, for the 
ships being unable to beat up the coast Carvajal was per- 
suaded to send a large number of the people on board over- 
land to the settlement at Isabella. In pursuance of this 
intent Juan Antonio Colombo landed with forty well-armed 
men, who, however, no sooner gained the shore than thirty- 
two of them went off and joined the rebels, nor would they 
listen to any overtures from Colombo to return to duty. 

Unable to accomplish anything on shore, Colombo re- 
turned to the ships and contrived, after great danger and 
delay, to bring the vessels to Isabella, though not until one 
was badly injured by running on to a bar, and a larger part 
of the provisions was spoiled. 



THE NEW WORLD. 325 

The next six months were spent in a fruitless effort by 
Columbus and his associates to conciliate Roldan and induce 
him to renew his allegiance to the lawful authority. But 
having tasted the sweets of gratified ambition he was un- 
willing to surrender any of his advantages, unless it were 
done in the acquirement of greater ones. His power had 
become superior to that of Columbus himself, and in the 
success of his rebellion he maintained that the Admiral 
should practice that condescension which he had himself 
required. 

In the meantime, while these negotiations were being 
carried on there were other things to worry and vex the 
already anguished spirits of the Admiral. He had prepared 
a lengthy report of all his explorations and discoveries in 
the Gulf of Paria, not omitting to send to his sovereigns a 
gilded representation of the vast wealth which might be 
acquired by collecting pearls which were to be found in the 
greatest abundance and finest variety on the coast of South 
America. But this report he did not conclude without 
describing the insurrection of Roldan and depicting the 
deplorable condition of affairs which had been precipitated 
through the rebellion of that ambitious man and an upris- 
ing of the natives. It was particularly unfortunate for Co- 
lumbus that it was necessary he should make such a report, 
because his attack on the hireling of Fonseca at the time of 
his departure had materially prejudiced him in the estima- 
tion of the sovereigns, while the repeated complaints and 
revolts served as a further proof to them of the charge that- 
he was often actuated to imprudent acts by an uncon- 
trollable temper. In consequence of this feeling the reply 
which he received from Ferdinand and Isabella was couched 
in most formal language, plainly intimating their waning 
confidence in his judgment and stability. 

Roldan had been induced, through the good offices of 



326 COLUMBUS. 

Carvajal, to liold an interview with Columbus, at which 
such concessions were made by the Admiral that the re- 
bellious officer had agreed to take passage with his disaf- 
fected followers for Spain. To accomplish this three cara- 
vels were made ready, after considerable delay, in which the 
rebels embarked. But they had scarcely gotten out of the 
harbor of Isabella before a storm arose which drove them 
violently on the shore and compelled them for the time 
being to abandon the purpose and return home. This un- 
fortunate accident seemed to prove that the elements were 
opposing the designs of Columbus, since his hope of ridding 
himself of the rebellious element of the colony was thus 
suddenly destroyed; as upon regaining Isabella Roldan 
reconsidered his determination to return to Spain and re- 
newed his demands for greater concessions, to which, not- 
withstanding their injustice, Columbus was compelled to 
yield. As a price of peace Roldan received a title to a 
considerable tract of land in the immediate district of Isa 
bella and another in the valley of the Vega Real, and was 
likewise appointed, under the pressure of his insistence, 
alcalde of el Esperanza. 

Upon receipt of the reports and letters of Columbus the 
Spanish sovereigns, influenced by the representations of 
Fonseca, who lost no opportunity to impair the authority 
of Columbus, permitted the fitting out of four caravels un- 
der Alonzo de Ojeda, who had formerly been under great 
obligations to the Admiral but was now a creature of the 
Spanish secretary. In violation of the exclusive prerog- 
ativ^es which had been granted to Columbus, Ojeda sailed 
under the sovereign permit to the Gulf of Pearls, with the 
ostensible purpose of verifying the discoveries reported by 
Columbus, but really intending to profit thereby if he should 
find his statements to be true regarding the great quantity 
of pearls which he located there. While Ojeda failed to 



THE NEW WORLD. 32; 

procure any considerable quantity of the pearls, he did suc- 
ceed in gathering some gold and a large number of slaves, 
with which he returned to Spain ; after which successful 
voyage, emboldened by the protection of Fonseca, he set 
sail for San Domingo with the purpose of hurrying the 
downfall of Columbus by seizing his power and person. 

Ojeda appeared off the coast of Hispaniola at a time 
when the affairs of the colony were in a most abject state, 
and putting into the port of Yaquimo, a few miles from Isa- 
bella, he began to industriously circulate reports among 
such of the colonists as he could find to lend a willing ear 
to his pretenses that Columbus was no longer in favor at 
court, and that the Queen was then in declining health 
beyond the hope of recovery, so that henceforth Fonseca, 
his patron, was practically the true authority controlling in 
the Indies. The old companions of Roldan applauded this 
proceeding and a large number joined him, thus complicat- 
ing the situation more than it had ever been before. In 
the face of all these intrigues and evil instigations, having 
their origin apparently near the Spanish Court, the courage 
of Columbus, which had until then been undaunted, sud- 
denly failed him. He foresaw that the purpose of his 
enemies was to remove him by assassination if necessary, 
and the instinct of self-preservation impelled him for the 
moment to escape with his brothers in a caravel from the 
rage of those who designed his destruction. 

But in this darkest hour of his dejection his star of hope 
suddenly shone through a rift in the cloud of his despair, 
caused by a report which was brought him that a rivalry 
had sprung up between Roldan and Ojeda, the outcome of 
which could not fail to prove of advantage to the cause of 
justice ; for it is a trite and ancient saying that, ** When 
thieves fall out, honest men have their dues." Roldan, per- 
ceiving that his power was rapidly diminishing by the aliena- 



328 COLUMBUS. 

tion of his followers through the intrigues of Ojeda, deter- 
mined to unreservedly sustain in the future the authority of 
the Admiral, whence his power of alcalde or chief-justice 
was derived. So employing all his audacity and cunning as 
well as physical force, after a scries of curious incidents he 
finally compelled Ojeda to take to his ships and put to sea. 
At this time another event occurred which in the end 
proved of service to the colonists and assisted greatly in the 
restoration of the power which Columbus had lost. One of 
Roldan's chiefs living in Xaragua, becoming infatuated with 
the daughter of Queen Anacaona, desired to marry her and 
applied to the Church to legitimate the union. Roldan, 
however, appears also to have been enamored of the beauti- 
ful princess, and took steps towards preventing the mar- 
riage, which so inflamed the young ofificer that he hatched 
a plot against the life of the chief-justice. Accordingly he 
fomented a rebellion, and surrounding himself with a few 
bold spirits who had given a solemn vow to perform his 
orders, he formulated the desperate plan of seizing Roldan 
and putting out his eyes. The plot was fortunately dis- 
covered in time to avert the crime, and some of the con- 
spirators being taken and adjudged guilty of the charge, 
they were arrested and carried to San Domingo. As 
Roldan was himself the chief-justice, Avithin an hour after 
the time they were brought before him, he had pronounced 
their condemnation according to the degrees of their cul- 
pability. The leader, Adrien de Moxica, was condemned 
to death, while his accomplices were either banished or im- 
prisoned. The execution of Moxica was to take place from 
the top of the fortress, but at the moment when the 
executioner was prepared to do his duty the condemned 
man repulsed his confessor, at which Roldan ordered the 
wretch to be thrown from the top of the battlements into 
the moat. But others of the conspirators had escaped, and 



THE NEW WORLD. 329 

these Columbus on the one hand and Roldan on the other 
pursued with vigor, taking with them a priest in order that 
those made prisoners might have the benefit of a confessor, 
for in each instance they were destroyed upon the spot 
where they were captured. These heroic measures not only 
ended the conspiracy but put an end to the rebellion which 
had been fomented by Guevara, the aspirant for the hand 
of the young princess. At the same time, by conceding to 
the demands made by Roldan, Columbus had re-established 
himself at the head of the colony, and was taking new 
courage, when report reached him of the machinations of 
his enemies at the Court of Spain, who had not yet aban- 
doned their intent of depriving him of his power and bring- 
ing him to judgment on the charges which had been 
preferred, as previously described. The intent of these 
enemies, however, had been carefully veiled up to the time 
of putting their designs into execution, so that Columbus, 
while learning that some evil was hatching, had no intima- 
tion of the real measures concerted against him. 

The result of these machinations was that the sovereigns, 
through the advice of Fonseca, sent a Commissary to His- 
paniola in the person of Francisco de Bobadilla, a man high 
in the esteem of Fonseca and who likewise enjoyed the 
confidence of the court. On the 23d of August, 1500, while 
Columbus was engaged in enlarging the fortress of Concep- 
cion, two caravels made their way through the mouth of 
the Ozema River. Don Diego Columbus, thinking that the 
caravels brought the eldest son of the Admiral, he having 
written him to come, dispatched a boat to inquire if he was 
on board. The reply brought back was that the vessels had 
come bringing a Commissary of the sovereigns to judge the 
Roldan rebels and that young Diego had not embarked. 
Most unfortunately for Columbus, as the vessels put into 
port Bobadilla, who was a hasty, harsh and vindictive man, 



330 COLUMBUS. 

and withal a blind tool who had been well posted by the 
malignant Fonseca, saw two gibbets on the beach, from 
which were suspended two bodies that had been executed 
the day previous. This sight in his mind justified the 
charges of cruelty brought against the Admiral, and he was 
thus the better prepared to give his judgment in opposition 
to the advice or even evidence which might be presented by 
Columbus. 

Bobadilla and his suite disembarked and on the following 
day attended mass, where at the conclusion of the services 
he ordered his letters patent to be read, authorizing him to 
investigate the late troubles that had arisen in the island. 
Diego Columbus, who was present, replied that the viceroy, 
his brother, had titles superior to this commission and should 
be consulted in whatever action it was deemed advisable to 
take. But in the most imperious and insolent manner 
Bobadilla silenced Diego, and impertinently arrogated to 
himself rights far beyond what his letters credited him with, 
and his actions thereafter were those of a lawless and super- 
cilious blackguard. He seized the fortress, took possession 
of the prisoners and declared his purpose of sending the 
viceroy and his brothers in chains to Spain. These high- 
handed outrages were reported to the Admiral bj'a messen- 
ger, upon receipt of which information he left Concepcion 
and proceeded to a village called Bonao, from which place 
he wrote to Bobadilla, felicitating him on his arrival, but 
requested him not to take any more steps before he had 
carefully studied the situation. At the same time he 
assured the Commissary that he was willing to resign to 
him the reins of government and would cheerfully furnish 
him all the information that he might need to enable 
him to make a true inquiry concerning the rebellion and 
unh;q)py incidents that had so disturbed the island during 
the past year, To this communication Bobadilla returned 



THE NEW WORLD. 



oj' 



no answer, but continued his arrogant pretensions to the 
viceroyalty, to the subversion of all rightful authority over 
the people. 

The impudent audacity of Bobadilla, who had acted the 
part of a pirate rather than an accredited officer of dignity, 
at length aroused the enmity not only of the friends of 
Columbus, but of some of the caciques who remained loyal 
in their allegiance to the Admiral, and fearing that some con- 
certed movement would be made to resent his rude assump- 
tion of absoluteness, Bobadilla finally concluded to employ 
persuasive and gentler means in bringing Columbus to sub- 
mit to his authority. Accordingly he commissioned a priest 
to proceed to Bonao and there inform the Admiral of his 
having fallen into disfavor with his sovereigns, and to show 
him the letters of credence under which he had come to 
Hispaniola to assume direction of the affairs on that island. 

Having received these letters and a request to come to San 
Domingo, Columbus set out on horseback without servants 
and clothed in the costume of a Franciscan. But when he 
reached the city he was immediately arrested and incarcerated 
in the fortress, and that his humiliation might be the greater 
his feet were shackled with iron fetters. After perpetrating 
this outrage Bobadilla ordered Columbus to address a letter 
to his brother, Don Bartholomew, ordering him to relinquish 
his authority in Xaragua and come to San Domingo without 
his soldiers. Complying with this demand the Adelantado 
had scarcely arrived at the residence of the viceroyalty when 
he was likewise seized, with his brother Don Diego, and cast 
into prison — the three being isolated to prevent communi- 
cation and all fettered alike. Insufficiently clothed and 
compelled to lie upon a cold stone pavement, Columbus 
suffered excruciating agony from rheumatism and twinges 
of gout which had not left him free from pain for a period 
of nearly two years. But he was uncomplaining, in the 



332 COLUMBUS. 

hope and belief that his wrongs would be redressed when he 
should return to Castile and could present his case to the 
sovereigns. 

Bobadilla, having now the three Columbus brothers secure 
in a dungeon, began to inquire into the charges which had 
been preferred by summoning to the inquest all the rebels, 
ringleaders, criminals and prisoners who had been punished 
by the Admiral, the Adelantado and Don Diego for their 
crimes. The result might have been readily foreseen. They 
were found guilty upon all the charges. The malignancy of 
Bobadilla did not, however, extend to the execution of his 
prisoners as Columbus had anticipated, but still shackled he 
sent them on board the caravel Gorda for transportation to 
Spain, with a lengthy report justifying their condemnation, 
and recommending them to the severest punishment. The 
care of Columbus and his brothers was committed to Alonzo 
de Vallejo, with Andreas Martin as master of the vessel, 
which departed early in October for the shores of Spain. 

The spectacle of the discoverer of a new world, who had 
passed through ordeals which few men in this life are called 
upon to bear, whose acts had conferred upon the world the 
largest possible measure of benefits, was one so grievous to be- 
hold that the sympathies of Vallejo and Martin were aroused, 
and they volunteered to remove the chains which shackled the 
feet of the aged Admiral. But this alleviation of his injuries 
Columbus refused, as he did not wish to appear to contra- 
vene the orders given by the representative of his sovereigns, 
preferring to bear the pain and anguish of mind and body 
which his galling fetters produced rather than find relief 
through an infringement of the orders under which he was 
being transported. 

In these afflictions Columbus was no doubt sustained by a 
feeling that he had been called upon to bear the revilings and 
the persecutions of those in authority, that his great mission 



THE NEW WORLD. 333 

might thus become prominent in the world's estimation, a feel- 
ing which he betrayed in a letter which he wrote to a friend 
of the Queen, in which he appears to liken himself unto John 
and those of the prophets who had passed through the dark 
valley of persecution and thence upwards with the world's 
applause to the sublime heights of heavenly reward. 

The voyage to Spain was blessed with such favorable 
winds that the passage was accomplished in five weeks, a 
much quicker trip than had ever before been made ; nor was 
it attended by any unpleasantness of rough sea or foul 
weather. So careful in his attention to the wants of Colum- 
bus had been the master of the Gorda that, excepting the 
inconvenience of his fetters, the Admiral had fared exceed- 
ingly well, and when the ship came to anchor in the Bay of 
Cadiz, on the 20th of November, Captain Martin dispatched 
a confidential messenger to Granada, where the sovereigns 
were then residing, with a letter from Columbus to the nurse 
or preceptress of the infant Don Juan, who was his particu- 
lar friend and in the highest confidence of the Queen. This 
letter, which rehearsed all his dif^culties and wrongs in San 
Domingo, was borne with such celerity that it reached its 
destination considerably in advance of the condemnation 
proceedings and reports of Bobadilla ; and as Columbus had 
anticipated, after reading the letter the nurse placed it in 
the hands of the Queen. The indignation and grief of Isa- 
bella was so great over the insufferable wrongs that had been 
put upon the viceroy that she sent a courier with all haste 
to her ofificer of marine in Cadiz, commanding him forthwith 
to release Columbus and his brothers. The sovereigns also 
joined in a letter to the Admiral, deploring the indignities 
that had been put upon him, and gave assurances that what 
he had suffered was through the unwarranted acts of a rep- 
resentative unfortunately chosen. But their reparation for 
the offenses of Bobadilla was not confined to mere expres- 



334 COLUMBUS. 

sions of regard and mortification, for desiring to demonstrate 
their feeling by substantial tokens, they sent Columbus a 
purse of two thousand ducats (equivalent to more than eight 
thousand dollars at the present day) to remedy the destitu- 
tion in which he had been placed, and accompanied the gift 
with an invitation to attend at court when his convenience 
would allow. 

As soon as he was thus freed and restored to honor the 
Admiral prepared to accept the invitation of his sovereigns 
and visit them at Granada. By one of those remarkable 
reactions to which his mind was subject he chose to prepare 
himself in state for the journey. He purchased an elegant 
court dress and cloak in the style of the Spanish nobility, 
and set out with attendants suitable for a man of noble 
rank. He arrived at Granada on the 17th of December, 
1500, and was received by the King and Queen in the hall 
of the Alhambra. 

The scene was worthy of the poet's song and the painter's 
brush. The hair of the Admiral was now white as the 
almond blossom. His aspect was venerable in the highest 
degree ; but the furrows of grief and care w-ere deeply 
plowed in his aged face. The manner of the sovereigns, 
especially of the Queen, was as gracious, in fact more con- 
descending than it had ever been before, for it is narrated 
that when Isabella saw him approach the tears coursed 
down her face and the woman could scarcely be restrained 
by the Queen. As for Columbus, his feelings quite over- 
came him and he sank down weeping, sobbing at the feet of 
her whose friendship for more than a decade of years had 
been his chief defense and hope in the day of extremity and 
despair. 

A long and interesting interview was now held between 
the discoverer and their Majesties. Their bearing towards 
him and their words of cheer soon revived him from des- 



THE NEW WORLD. 335 

pendency, and he entered with spirit and animation upon 
an account of the incidents and results of his third voyage, 
and upon a justification of his purposes and policy in the 
government of Hispaniola. 

The reaction in his favor, which occurred all over Spain 
immediately the news of his arrival in chains had been 
spread, as well as his appearance and the wrongs he had 
suffered, predisposed the King and Queen so greatly in his 
favor that they refused to receive and read the report or 
protocol of Bobadilla. For a while they showered every 
possible attention upon him, and gave him a room in the 
palace, where he was permitted to exercise all the freedom 
and dignity of the most noble officers of the realm. Though 
Isabella was particularly anxious to make amends for the 
evil conduct of which he had been the chief sufferer 
through the unadvised appointment of Bobadilla, after the 
first few weeks of special favor Columbus found that oppor- 
tunities were not yet open for him to prosecute to the end 
the enterprises which he still had in his mind. 

It is more than probable that Ferdinand prejudiced the 
Queen more or less against her natural inclination to recon- 
firm him in the governorship of Hispaniola, of which he had 
been deprived by the usurpation of Bobadilla, for, when 
Columbus approached her with a request for the renewal of 
her patronage for a fourth expedition, she reminded him of 
some of the cruelties which he had inaugurated in direct 
opposition to her wishes, if not commands. She accused 
him of having subjected many of the natives to slavery, and 
of his insistence in continuing the slave traffic, which she had 
hoped to end by explicit commands; that in his treatment 
of the Indians of San Domingo he should at all times be 
actuated by a merciful disposition and regard for their 
temporal as well as their spiritual welfare. She took occa- 
sion also to remind him that many acts of apparent cruelty 



^7,6 COLUMBUS. 

had been committed of which, it appeared to her, rebellious 
feelings and overt acts had been the immediate outcome. 
For these several reasons she deemed it unadvisable to re- 
instate him at once in the governorship of Hispaniola, and 
begged that he would wait at least two years, until affairs 
had quieted down in that island under the administration 
of a new governor whom she had in her mind to tempora- 
rily appoint. But as an alleviation of this apparently harsh 
act the Queen assured him that she had no disposition to 
deprive him of any of the honors which he had won, or of 
the dignities which had already been conferred. He should, 
therefore, continue to hold the position of nominal gover- 
nor of the island and viceroy of the high seas. 

As for Bobadilla, there was no other thought on the part 
of the sovereigns than to depose him, if not to dismiss him 
in disgrace. Even if Ferdinand was willing to reap the 
benefit of the things that had been done, he was by no 
means willing to incur the odium of defending and uphold- 
ing his agent. Bobadilla was, therefore, consigned to that 
ignominious place in the page of history where he presents 
a striking example of the impetuous, vainglorious and cruel 
autocrat of an hour. 

The sovereigns decided to send out at once a royal vice- 
roy with orders to supersede Bobadilla, and not only to re- 
store order in the island, but to give attention and direction 
to the nascent industries of the colony, to the end that all 
might as soon as possible become regular and organized. 

After due consideration, their Majesties chose for the im- 
portant place of Governor of Hispaniola a Spanish noble- 
man and military commander of the Order of Alcantara, 
named Nicholas de Ovando, a man of excellent traits, but 
lacking in some essential qualities for a successful adminis- 
tration of affairs in the condition which Bobadilla had left 
them in the island. But when we consider that he was a 



THE NEW WORLD. 337 

close friend of Fonseca, the appointment was not so bad as 
Columbus had reason to expect. 

The fleet appointed to accompany Ovando was the 
largest which had yet sailed to the New World, consisting of 
thirty vessels, five of which were from ninety to one hun- 
dred and fifty tons burden, twenty-four caravels of from 
thirty to ninety, and one bark of twenty-five tons. The 
number of souls who embarked in this fleet was about 
twenty-five hundred, many of whom where persons of rank 
and distinguished families. There were also live stock, 
artillery, arms, munitions of all kinds, everything, in short, 
which was required for the supply of the island. The fleet 
put to sea on the 13th of February, 1502. In the early part 
of the voyage it encountered a terrible storm, in which one 
of the ships foundered with one hundred and twenty passen- 
gers, while the others were compelled to throw ov^erboard 
everything that was on deck, and the whole fleet was com- 
pletely scattered. The shores of Spain were strewn with 
articles from the fleet, and a rumor quickly spread that 
all the ships had perished. When this news reached the 
sovereigns they were so overcome with grief that they re- 
fused to see any one for a period of eight days. For- 
tunately the rumor proved to be incorrect, for but one ship 
was lost. The others assembled again at the island of 
Gomera in the Canaries and pursued their voyage, arriving 
at San Domingo on the i$th of April. 

Being deprived of his command, and arrested in the 
exciting pursuit which he had begun ten years before, 
Columbus became depressed with melancholy reflections on 
the unjust treatment to which he had been subjected, not 
only by the appointment of the sovereigns, but by a two 
years' relegation to inaction, a time which was inexpres- 
sibly dreary to one who had been so long and actively en- 
gaged in adventurous enterprises. 
22 



338 COLUMBUS. 

But though disappointed in his hopes of immediate res- 
toration to his government, he still had the visions and 
speculations in which his mind had been so richly produc- 
tive since boyhood. It will be remembered that among the 
Admiral's dreams had been one relative to the recovery 
of Jerusalem from the Turks. This, indeed, had been a 
project of co-ordinate importance in his mind with the dis- 
covery of a westward route to the Indies. The vow which 
he had recorded to undertake the recovery of the Holy 
Sepulcher from the infidels Vvithin a period of seven years 
he had not been able to fulfill, and the hope of raising fifty 
thousand infantry and five thousand horse from his own 
means seemed further removed now than ever. Indeed, 
instead of being in a situation of power, wealth and influence 
sufficient for that great undertaking, he now found himself 
lodged at the Spanish Court, not wholly unembarrassed in 
resources, cordially disliked by the Spanish nobility, and 
dependent almost entirely upon the pledge of the Queen 
for his hopes of future aggrandizement. But while his 
condition was calculated to affect his ambitions, had there 
been any extraneous influences, his spirit was aroused to 
the grand results which might be obtained if he could in- 
duce the King and Queen to undertake a recovery of Jeru- 
salem. 

The Spanish Court was, as we have seen, sitting in Gran- 
ada, that ancient and glorious stronghold of the Moors 
around and in which the arts and learning and religion of 
the Arabs had flourished for eight centuries. There was 
the old palace of the Moorish kings, the Alhambra of great 
fame, with its richly adorned halls and court of lions, from 
which the last of the Islamite kings had been driven only 
nine years bofore. The Admiral himself had witnessed 
that famous surrender in which the Crescent, after many 
centuries of splendid elevation, bowed to the Cross and the 



THE NEW WORLD. 339 

followers of the Prophet were driven back into Africa and 
the East. What more natural than that the mind of 
Columbus should follow in the course of the retreating 
Moors ; that he should pursue them along the African coast 
to Egypt, to Acre, to the Holy City ? He gave himself up 
to his old-time speculation and devoted a large part of the 
nine months of his residence at Granada to the promotion 
of his scheme for the retaking of Jerusalem. But after this 
long fruitless effort with both the King and Queen to un- 
dertake a crusade, he found the uselessness of pressing fur- 
ther a scheme in which Ferdinand could not be prevalied 
upon to take any interest. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

All his efforts to arouse the fiery religious zeal of the 
Spanish sovereigns availing him nothing towards the reali- 
zation of his pious dreams, Columbus turned his ambition 
once more to further exploration in the waters of the Occi- 
dent. He now conceived the idea that he had reached a 
northern and southern continent between which there must 
be a strait or passage, which if once gained would bring him 
to the land of Cathay, where he might secure the inestimable 
riches and reward which had been the prime motive of his first 
voyage. So well did he set forth his plans and schemes 
before the Queen that she approved of his design and sig- 
nified her willingness to become his patron on a fourth ex- 
pedition. With these assurances, notwithstanding his age, 
Columbus set about in the most vigorous spirit prepara- 
tions for a fourth voyage. Before taking his leave of the 
Queen, however, he asked permission to take with him his 
second son, Don Fernando, now in his fourteenth year, 
who with his brother had been acting as page to the Queen 
for nearly two years. Having gained her consent to this 
request Fernando was commissioned as a naval oflficer, and 
the Admiral then proceeded to Seville to give the necessary 
orders for the fitting out of his proposed expedition. Co- 
lumbus desired also the company of his two brothers, neither 
of whom, however, was disposed in the beginning to con- 
tinue longer in a service which had brought them nothing 
but revilings and suffering. Don Bartholomew, however, 
was finally persuaded to sacrifice his inclinations to fraternal 
340 



THE NEW WORLD. 341 

love, and consented to embark with the Admiral. But 
Don Diego could not forget the crying injustice committed 
towards the viceroy and himself, and he accordingly resolved 
to quit the world and in future serve only the Church, act- 
ing upon which determination he embraced the ecclesiastical 
state, in which he continued to the end. 

The fleet equipped for the fourth voyage consisted of 
four small vessels, ranging from fifty to seventy tons burden 
each, and the crews comprised one hundred and fifty men. 
All the preparations, while they were possibly adequate for 
the intended expedition, were modest to a degree and could 
but be in strongest contrast with the extraordinary magnifi- 
cence and splendor of the fleet which had been prepared 
for Nicholas de Ovando. When Columbus asked that on 
the outward voyage he might be permitted to touch at 
Hispaniola, his request was refused on the pretense that 
the priests and the ofificials of the island were incensed 
against him and that his presence would only tend to in- 
tensify the difficulties against which Ovando had to contend. 

The little fleet departed from Cadiz on the nth of May, 
1502, passed over to the coast of Morocco and anchored 
before Ercilla on the 13th, intending to offer some assist- 
ance to the Portuguese garrison, which it was learned was 
closely besieged by the Moors. But on his arrival there 
the Admiral learned that the siege had been raised, so after 
a short detention he continued on his way and arrived at 
the Canary Islands on the 20th, leaving there five days 
later for the New World. The trade winds were so favor- 
able that the little squadron sped swiftly on its course with- 
out shifting a sail, arriving on the 13th of June at Mantinano 
(probably the modern Martinique), one of the Caribbee 
Islands. Here the ships' supplies were renewed and the 
men permitted to revive their energies by a three days' so- 
journ on land. Then the voyage was continued to Domin- 



342 COLUMBUS. 

ico and from that island to Santa Cruz, thence to Porto 
Rico and finally to San Domingo. 

It will be remembered that Columbus had solicited the 
privilege of visiting the capital of his own island, but had 
been refused. A misfortune, however, had come upon the 
fleet which might well give the Admiral an excuse for de- 
parting from the letter of his instructions. The largest of 
his ships had proved to be so defective that she could no 
longer keep her place in the fleet without severe detention 
to the other vessels. Columbus deemed it expedient, there- 
fore, to put in at San Domingo to exchange the bad ship 
for one of the vessels of Ovando's fleet, which he could so 
well spare. It thus happened that at the time when 
Ovando had completed the preliminaries of administration, 
when Bobadilla and many others had been put on board 
for the home-bound voyage, the fleet of Columbus on the 
29th of June arrived at the harbor of San Domingo. At 
first the Admiral lay off and sent one of his captains to 
Ovando with polite messages and a request that an exchange 
of vessels might be made. But the governor would not 
accept the proposal, and even refused to grant Columbus 
the privilege of bringing his ships to shelter in the harbor. 
The Admiral had noted just at the time of his arrival the 
unmistakable signs of an approaching tempest, and he re- 
quested an opportunity to shelter his squadron until the 
coming hurricane should pass. To the less weather-wise, 
however, there were no such indications, and Ovando no 
doubt imagined that the request of Columbus was a pretext 
for opening communication with friends on shore. At all 
events the act of courtesy was withheld, and the discoverer 
of the New World was excluded from anchoring in the har- 
bor of his own capital. 

But this was by no means the end of the incident. The 
messengers whom Columbus had sent learned while on shore 



THE NEW WORLD. 343 

of the intended departure of Ovando's squadron for Spain. 
Moved by a lofty spirit of humanity which well becomes 
so great a man, the Admiral, though refused permission to 
come to a place of safety, sent back his oflRcers to solemnly 
warn Ovando of the approaching storm and to counsel him 
by all means to forbid the departure of the fleet until the 
danger had passed. This warning, however, was put aside 
as of no value, being disregarded by the pilots and mariners 
as it was by Ovando. In this false security the fleet of 
Ovando sailed away and reached the eastern extremity of 
the island ; but, as Columbus had predicted, the fleet was 
now suddenly arrested by a fearful tempest which struck 
the vessels with such impetuosity that they were driven 
upon the rocks, and the shore was soon strewn with the 
wreckage. The ship on which Bobadilla, Roldanand many 
other of the insurgents had been placed for transportation 
to Spain, including the cacique Guarionex and other Indian 
prisoners, and in which gold and other treasures gathered 
during Bobadilla's administration were stored, was caught 
in the dreadful fury of the storm and torn to pieces as 
though it had been a toy. The vessel broke and rolled 
helplessly on the surge for a moment, then plunged head 
foremost with all on board into the great vortex of the sea 
and disappeared forever ! A judgment very different from 
that which might have been rendered by Bishop Fonseca 
in the packed courts of Seville was thus suddenly passed 
upon the reckless and despotic adventurers whose misdeeds 
had affected so disastrously the fortunes of Columbus ; and 
both the men and their crimes were swiftly buried in the 
endless oblivion of the angry sea. 

The ruin of Ovando's squadron was complete. A single 
vessel, one of the smallest of all, which strangely enough 
had as a part of its cargo the revenues of Columbus, col- 
lected for him in Hispaniola by Alonzo de Cavajal, his 



344 COLUMBUS. 

agent, escaped from the tornado and reached Spain in 
safety. It might well seem to the Spanish sovereigns that 
all discouragement and fate itself were against them in their 
attempt to take the West Indies for their own. To Colum- 
bus and his band the late events appeared as a signal inter- 
position of Providence. His own ships escaped without 
extreme damage and were able to come together after the 
tempest and make their way in safety to Port Hermoso, on 
the south coast of tlie island, about twenty-five miles from 
San Domingo. Here Columbus refitted his vessels, and 
having taken on some additional stores, notwithstanding 
that the weather continued stormy, he renewed his voyage ; 
but before proceeding many leagues tlie storm increased to 
such an extent that he was driven back to Port Jacquemel, 
where he remained until the I4tli of July. Departing from 
this place, he skirted the coast of Jamaica and paid a brief 
visit to the Queen's Gardens, the small group of islands 
which he had discovered eight years before. Thence con- 
tinuing his voyage in a southwesterly direction, he dis- 
covered an island so covered with lofty pines that he gave 
to it the name of Isla dc Pinos, the Indian name of which 
was Guanaja, which it has since retained though sometimes 
called Bonacca. A short stay was made at this island, dur- 
ing which time Don Bartholomew went on shore and made 
some interesting discoveries among the people, whom he 
found hospitable though differing greatly in their ethnic 
peculiarities from other natives with whom he had come in 
contact. Among the interesting curiosities which he was 
permitted to see while visiting this island was a state barge 
formed from the trunk of a single tree, and yet fully eight 
feet in width and as much as seventy feet long. On this 
great canoe the cacique had a sort of cabin constructed and 
fitted up in the most luxurious manner, in which he spent a 
great part of his time. Columbus was pleased to find that 



THE NEW WORLD. 345 

these people made a free use of the metals, though bone 
and wood were still largely employed in the manufacture 
of implements. Instead of the rude celts, or stone hatchets 
of the Bahamas and Antilles, these natives used copper for 
nearly all their weapons, and in fashioning these they dis- 
played no little skill. 

The pottery of the Guanajans had a fair claim to ele- 
gance, as did their textile fabrics, which were chiefly of 
cotton dyed with considerable skill. The products of the 
island were cocoa, the chocolate tree, Indian gum and the 
usual fruits found in tropical countries. But nowhere was 
Columbus able to find either gold or silver, so that he was 
permitted rather to gratify his curiosity than his avarice. 
These people tried to tell him of a country, great and pow- 
erful, lying somewhere west of their own ; but communica- 
tion with them was so difficult and their meaning so doubt- 
ful that the Admiral did not choose to make any effort to 
verify what they sought to reveal. Had he done so he 
must in less than a two days' sail have reached Yucatan, 
with its quaint and varied civilization, and afterwards, by 
necessary sequence, the gorgeous Mexico, where his dreams 
of oriental splendor might well seem to be realized in the 
silver-bright halls of the Montezumas. 

Strangely enough, however, Columbus' whole attention 
was fixed on the finding of that strait which he confidently 
believed would lead him directly to the country where Gen- 
ghis Khan was supposed to live in unexampled splendor 
and magnificence. It thus happened that the Admiral, 
confident of his ability to make his way through into the 
Indian Ocean, really cared little for the reports which the 
natives gave him respecting the wealth and opulence of 
the populous countries immediately to the west, but rather 
cared everything for the ocean currents to which he yielded 
himself in the confidence that they would bear him directly 



346 COLUMBUS. 

to his goal. He accordingly passed by one of the grandest 
opportunities of his life. Yucatan and Mexico were not 
discovered. Those lands, rich in the wonders of an ancient 
civilization, inhabited by millions of people belonging to a 
strange and unknown race, were left to others, while the 
Admiral's destiny carried him as if by a deluding vision into 
the most trying episodes of his whole career. 

Leaving Guanaja, after a short voyage Columbus reached 
the coast of Honduras, where a landing was effected and 
the sailors were permitted to rest for three days. The 
country was claimed with the usual formalities, and on the 
17th of August the squadron proceeded eastward along the 
northern coast of Honduras, but was arrested by ocean 
tides and such fierce storms that several times shelter had 
to be sought in the harbors along the coast. Rains poured 
down in such torrents as the Spaniards had never before 
witnessed, while occasionally, for a space of twenty-four 
hours, thunder reverberated with a continuous crash that 
seemed to shake both ocean and sky ; lightnings pierced 
the darkened horizon, and the general confusion and terror 
were so great that the hardy sailors, though long weather- 
beaten and well experienced in the hardships and perils of 
the deep, frequently gave up in despair, confessed them- 
selves and made ready for what they momentarily expected 
would be the final summons. Columbus was himself at in- 
tervals apprehensive that the end was at hand, and his sor- 
rows were aggravated by the thought that he had brought 
to this stormy world his most devoted brother and his 
second son probably to perish with him. 

The storm having at length partially abated, Columbus 
was permitted to land from time to time at inviting harbors, 
where he came in contact with the natives and made many 
efforts to gain their confidence and a knowledge of their 
country. But in many cases they employed a language not 



THE NEW WORLD. 347 

understood by the interpreters, and communication with 
them was, therefore, uncertain. The first natives that 
Columbus observed on the coast of Honduras were gener- 
ally naked and tattooed on different parts of the body with 
figures of the deer and jaguar. But he found others who 
were clothed with cotton waistcoats and a few had cuirasses 
made of the untanned skins of animals. In other places 
along the coast the natives bedaubed their faces with ocher, 
so as to give them a horrible appearance, greatly intensified 
by painting white circles around the eyes. Many of these 
people lived on uncooked fish and preferred all their meats 
raw, on which account rather than from ocular evidence 
they were believed to be cannibals. Farther eastward an- 
other tribe of natives was found whose peculiarity was in 
their practice of boring the ears and distending the orifice 
thus made by the insertion of pieces of bones, so that 
Columbus named the district Costa de la Orcja (Coast of 
the Ear). 

After departing from this latter region the vessels stood 
out to sea, but only to plunge into another storm of ex- 
ceeding severity. To add to the distress of the crews con- 
tinuous rains had rotted the sails until they were unable to 
withstand the wind, and were blown into tatters, while the 
caravels were so perforated by the teredo-worm that it 
required constant work at the pumps to keep them afloat. 
Exposure and want of sleep told severely on the strongest, 
and a majority of the men became incapacitated by sick- 
ness, while all were fairly helpless from terror. *' I have 
seen many tempests," says Columbus, " but none so violent 
and of such long duration." Indeed from the time of 
leaving San Domingo his voyage had been a succession of 
storms, culminating in one of extraordinary fury. But after 
forty days of trials and dark forebodings they came in sight 
of a cape on the 14th of September, and doubling this point 



348 COLUMBUS. 

they reached a protecting body of water and were able to 
make a landing near the mouth of a river and attend to the 
necessary repairs of the ships. In commemoration of this 
relief Columbus gave to the cape the name of Gracias a 
Dtos, or Thanks to God. Their stay at this place was cut 
short by a sudden swelling of the river, which poured down 
so great a flood that the vessels were swept out to sea, but 
happily when the repairs were so far made that they were 
able to withstand this new danger. 

Following the Mosquito shore along Darien, on the 25th 
they came to anchor opposite an Indian village called 
Cariari, where the prospect was delightful and the natives 
disposed to hospitality. But Columbus mistrusted the 
mysterious conduct of the Indians and became in turn the 
object of their distrust. A venerable old cacique brought 
two of his girls to Columbus as hostages for his pacific 
conduct, but even this offering did not fully restore con- 
fidence, for the young girls carried a magic powder with 
them which the Spaniards dreaded as much as the Indians 
held in terror the writing materials of their visitors. Being 
unable to establish mutual confidence, Columbus took his 
departure from Cariari and sailed along Costa Rica, the 
Rich Coast, landing at several places to communicate with 
the natives. He here found many evidences of abounding 
gold, but the signs of a strait being likewise conspicuous, he 
did not stop long enough to fully explore the country for 
that precious metal. 

A voyage of several days towards the south failed to 
reveal the passage of which he was in search, and the weather 
becoming stormy again, Columbus was induced by the ex- 
postulations and urgings of his crews to turn back and visit 
the gold mines of Veragua, of which he had heard many 
wonderful reports. His next point was, therefore, Puerto 
Bello, where he tarried two days. 3ut upon putting to sea 



THE NEW WORLD. 349 

another fierce storm arose which prevented him from 
regaining the harbor and left him again at the mercy of 
dashing wave and hghtning stroke. Instead of abating after 
the first day the storm increased in violence, and the vessels 
were so severely buffeted by the wild waves of a raging sea 
that their seams were opened and the horror of a desper- 
ate situation fell upon all on board. Columbus had been 
suffering such great agony from gout that these hardships, 
so long protracted, with only brief intervals of relief, ren- 
dered him unfit for duty. But he had a small cabin built 
for him on the forecastle deck, through the windows of 
which he could see from his bed all that was transpiring 
about him. Here for eight days he watched with deepest 
anxiety the falling torrents of rain, the booming billows that 
pounded like battering rams against the little vessels, and 
the lightnings that shot like fiery serpents out of the sky 
and burst with thundering detonations around the ships. 

Before these awful portents of frightful disaster the crews 
lost all hope of rescue, and set their thoughts on heaven as 
the harbor towards which their souls must now be directed. 
To add to the general terror. Father Alexandre, the Fran- 
ciscan chaplain, succumbed to sufferings to which the storm 
had subjected him, and in his death the superstitious sailors 
saw a fresh proof of God's afflicting hand in determining 
their destruction. But the worst incident of this tragical 
and horrific tempest was yet to come, that well might 
frighten fear itself. On the 15th of December the Admiral 
was startled by shrieks rising above the storm din and 
beating surges as if all the agonies of hell had burst through 
some rent in the sea to convey to earth an idea of the pangs 
visited upon lost souls. In this most appalling omen — this 
despairing cry that broke as it were from hearts stung by 
the darts of death — Columbus forgot his own sufferings in 
the excitements of a new danger. He tottered to the door. 



350 COLUMBUS. 

and sweeping the horizon with his feverish eyes discovered 
the cause of the sailors' consternation and affrightment. 
The four vessels had contrived to retain their positions, 
despite the fierce winds that assailed them, and in this 
relative proximity was now a danger of their engulfment 
together. Towards the north, less than a league away, the 
distressed watchers perceived the breaking waves gathering 
into one mountainous billow, growing higher and higher until 
its peak was whitened by a foaming cap of violent agitation. 
Immediately above this high-reaching watery summit black 
clouds that hung before the heavens like curtains of midnight 
began to boil and spread out their horrid hands to grapple 
and amass the inky vapor that broke only before the light- 
ning's bolt. Gaining a circular motion, the clouds whirled 
faster and faster until directly the center began to fall lower 
and lower to meet the upswirling mountain of water, when 
quickly an embracement occurred, frightful to behold, and 
in a death waltz the whirling waterspout came rushing 
towards the ships. It was as if the clouds were sweeping 
up the sea with inexorable ravenings — a summoning of the 
waters of the earth before that great Power who had once 
before imprisoned the deep in the heavens to turn it back 
in a deluge and drown the world. 

No human skill could avert the calamity that was threat- 
ening. Nothing but God's providence could restrain this 
Satanic maneuver. In an age so superstitious we are not 
surprised that in his extremity Columbus had recourse to 
exorcism to compel the demons of anger and calamity to 
yield their power, while he conjured the aid of blessed spirits 
to give him protection from the furies of the air. Taking 
six candles which had been consecrated by the Church, and 
wrapping about him the cord of St. Francis, he unsheathed 
his sword and, holding this aloft in his right hand, he held 
the book of the Gospels in his left, and facing the water- 



THE NEW WORLD. 351 

spout, read the opening chapter of St. John. Having 
performed this holy service he spoke to the winds as if by 
the authority of Jesus Himself, commanding them to abate 
and the waterspout to dissolve itself into the sea. To make 
this adjuration the more effective he described a magic 
circle with his sword and drew the sign of the cross therein, 
at which, strange to relate, the waterspout seemed to swerve 
somewhat from its track and pass off obliquely with a bel- 
lowing noise to lose itself in the immensity of the ocean. 
And following the disappearance of the waterspout the 
curiosity in the result is increased by the fact that the raging 
of the sea measurably abated, and in a brief time there "was a 
great calm. 

On the 6th of January, 1503, the squadron had regained 
the coast and entered the mouth of a river, which in 
honor of the feast day Columbus called the Belen, or Beth- 
lehem, which was scarcely more than a league from 
Veragua. The extraordinary difficulties which had attended 
the voyage from Puerto Bello to Veragua may be under- 
stood when we consider the fact that the distance was less 
than a hundred miles, and yet to traverse it required the 
labors and sufferings of nearly a month, during which inter- 
val Columbus had passed through more privations and 
anxieties than perhaps he had ever before experienced. 

At the mouth of the Belen was a considerable Indian 
village, the inhabitants of which made a show of hostile 
intent at the effort of the Spaniards to land. But Colum- 
bus contrived through the interpreter to make them under- 
stand that his object in visiting them was to open a trade 
to their advantage. At these assurances they laid down 
their arms and accorded a welcome to their visitors, and 
after the first greetings were exchanged they became quite 
civil and traded several large pieces of gold to the Span- 
iards for hawk-bells and other European trinkets. A few 



352 COLUMBUS. 

days later Don Bartholomew, taking with him some of the 
more courageous spirits of the expedition, ascended the 
river to the residence of the cacique of the country, who 
was known among the natives by the name of Quibian. 
This chief welcomed him with a hearty spirit of cordiality 
and accompanied his peaceful overtures with presents of 
gold ornaments, and was more than content with such gew- 
gaws as were given him in return. The chief also accom- 
panied his visitors back to the vessels and was induced to 
come on board, when the Admiral gave him a reception, 
had his musicians perform several pieces, and after showing 
him through the caravel made him many presents of such 
trinkets as mirrors and hawk-bells. But suddenly some 
suspicion arose in the mind of the cacique, and without 
stopping to give any explanation of his conduct he left the 
vessel abruptly, nor could he be persuaded to return. On 
the following day Don Bartholomew, at the head of seventy 
men, made a second trip of several miles into the interior 
to explore the country and ascertain its products. He 
found some indications of gold, and was assured that at the 
distance of twenty days' journey beyond there existed gold 
mines of large extent and exceeding richness, a report 
which the Spaniards were anxious to confirm by investi- 
gation. 

Since his physical condition as well as need of supplies 
prevented Columbus from continuing his search for the 
conjectured strait, he decided to establish a military post 
at the mouth of the river, while he himself would return to 
Castile to procure reinforcements and supplies, with the in- 
tent of accomplishing a permanent occupation of the gold- 
bearing country. He therefore conciliated some of the 
inferior chiefs by liberal presents, and gained their consent 
thereby to the building of a fortress on their lands. After 
completing the post he left a garrison of eighty men under 



THE NEW WORLD. 3S3 

the command of Don Bartholomew in charge of the for- 
tress, and also a caravel for their use in case it became nec- 
essary for them to abandon the country. Having settled 
everything satisfactorily, Columbus raised his anchors pre- 
paratory to departing with the other two vessels. But in 
the meantime the water in the river had become so shallow 
that he was compelled to wait until rains came to swell it 
to the necessary depth to enable him to pass over the bar 
at the river mouth. 

Meanwhile Ouibian, learning that a settlement had been 
formed on his territory, resolved to attack the Spaniards 
unawares and burn their ships, a vague report of which plot 
reached Columbus, but the particulars were wanting, nor 
could Columbus determine in his own mind the cause of 
this hostile purpose. 

Diego Mendez and Rodrigo de Escobar, whose braver}'- 
and sagacity had already served Columbus in the most 
perilous extremities, and were to give services no less valu- 
able thereafter, volunteered to enter the Indian camp as 
spies and ascertain the plans and intents of the enemy, a 
purpose which, hazardous as it was, Columbus gladly ac- 
cepted, for upon their success depended the fate of the 
expedition. The tv.o proceeded up the river a short way 
until they came upon two Indians whom they engaged, 
by signs and such speech as they had mastered, to convey 
them in a canoe to the residence of Quibian, which was 
upon the river bank. Though the voyage was hazardous to 
a degree, the two resolute spies succeeded in reaching the 
cacique's capital without accident, but they found the vil- 
lage in a great state of agitation through warlike prepara- 
tions, and danger signs were obsei-vable on every side. 
The audacity of the adventurers seems to have fairly 
appalled the natives for a time, but recovering from their 
surprise they manifested a murderous disposition which, 
23 



354 COLUMBUS. 

however, Mendez restrained by representing himself as a 
surgeon come to cure an arrow wound in the leg of Quibian, 
who had been shot in an engagement three days before. 
By this subterfuge the two passed on up the crest of a hill 
to the cacique's mansion, which occupied a level space of 
some dimensions, around which were arranged the skulls 
and decaying heads of three hundred enemies killed in 
battle. Even this horrible sight failed to excite great fear 
in the mind of the intrepid Mendez ; but scarcely had he 
crossed the court when a powerful son of Quibian rushed 
out and dealt the courageous Spaniard a blow in the face 
that knocked him backward, though not prostrate. This 
assault Mendez thought it unadvisable to resent, but rather 
to employ pacific measures to accomplish his ends. With 
this purpose he sought to conciliate the young man's anger 
by gentle words and by showing him a box of ointment 
which would cure his father's wound. These overtures 
serving to make him amenable to other advances, Mendez 
presented the belligerent youth with a looking-glass, comb 
and pair of scissors, and shovv'ed him how to use the articles 
to improve his looks. Under the influence of these gifts 
the young man became not only tractable but even friend- 
ly, though no amount of persuasion availed to gain ad- 
mittance to the chief. But being permitted to freely 
mingle with the Indians, Mendez and Escobar succeeded in 
discovering particulars of the designs of Quibian to assault 
and burn the ships, after which they returned in safety and 
apprised the Admiral fully of the plot, who took action at 
once to circumvent and punish the treacherous natives. 
The chief and several of his principal men were arrested by 
Don Bartholomew, who descended suddenly upon them 
MMth a force of eighty men. But through the negligence of 
the officer charged with his care Quibian contrived to make 
his escape, a result which the Spaniards did not seriously 



THE NEW WORLD. 355 

deplore, for they felt that their ends had been as effectually 
accomplished by a dispersion of the natives and the arrest 
of the chief as though he had been severely punished for 
his perfidy. 

On the 6th of April the River Belen had risen to a stage 
of water permitting the passage of the ships, and the Ad- 
miral accordingly prepared to take his departure. Sixty 
of the men who had been left for garrison duty came out 
in a long boat to bid their comrades in the ship adieu, leav- 
ing only twenty men with Don Bartholomew to guard the 
fortress, and these were scattered, some on the banks of the 
river and others through the country in aimless wander- 
ings. The lesson which the Spaniards had supposed Qui- 
bian had learned by his arrest did not prove so salutary as 
they had fancied, for seeing his advantage in the temporary 
diminution of the garrison, he gathered his force of about 
four hundred natives and surrounded the camp. Fortu- 
nately before making the attack the Indians filled the air 
with their cries, which gave the Spaniards timely warning 
and opportunity to arm themselves to meet their assailants. 
The result of the battle which followed was the killing of 
nineteen Indians and the taking captive of fifty others, who 
were conveyed to one of the caravels and imprisoned in the 
hold as hostages, but in the encounter seven of the Span- 
iards were wounded, two of whom died on the following 
day. Don Bartholomew also received an arrow wound in 
the breast, but not sufficiently serious to render confinement 
to his quarters necessary. 

But this tragic incident was only the prelude to one 
which proved very much more serious ; for on the following 
day Diego Tristan was sent up the river in one of the 
ship's boats with eleven men to procure a supply of fresh 
water, though he proceeded against the remonstrances of 
Diego Mendez, who was well acquainted with the char- 



356 COLUMBUS. » 

acter of the Indians and had made himself fairly fluent 
in their tongue. Tristan felt secure, however, with the 
force at his command, falsely reckoning that the natives 
had met with such disaster in their conflict with the 
Spaniards that they would hardly hazard another engage- 
ment at any odds. The consequence was that when he 
reached the place that afforded fresh water his boat was 
surrounded by Indians, some of whom were on shore and 
others in canoes, who fell upon the Spaniards with such 
surprise and impetuosity that all but one were massacred, 
and this sole survivor only escaped by the strategy of 
swimming under water to the opposite shore. 

This tragic event distressed Columbus so much that he 
could not prevail upon himself to leave under circumstances 
which would appear as an abandonment of the feeble gar- 
rison to the implacable hostility of an innumerable number of 
infuriated savages. 

On account of the boisterousness of the sea communica- 
tion with the shore was impossible, hence Columbus was 
left without information as to what was being done at the 
fortress. But he felt the insecurity of the men, though he 
had hopes that the Indians would not make an attack on 
account of the fifty prisoners who were detained as hostages 
on board his caravel. Every evening these captives were shut 
up in the forecastle of the vessel, the hatchway of which was 
secured by a strong chain and padlock. But one night the 
Spaniards neglected to fasten the chains, which fact came 
mysteriously to the knowledge of the Indians, who collected 
a number of stones from the ballast of the vessel, with 
which they made a heap sufficiently high to allow the men 
to exert their strength against the unsecured hatchway. 
Several of the most powerful warriors mounted on the top, 
and bending their backs, by simultaneous effort forced up 
the hatch, flinging the sailors who slept on it to the oppo- 



THE NEW WORLD. 357 

site side of the vessel. Having thus gained their liberty, 
several of them plunged into the sea and swam ashore. 
Others, however, were less fortunate, and being seized on 
the deck, were forced back into their prison quarters and the 
precaution of locking them in was then attended to. What 
was the surprise of the officers, however, when distributing 
the rations early in the morning, to find that during the 
night the imprisoned Indians had strangled themselves in 
their despair. Thus the situation was dreadfully compli- 
cated, for those who escaped would communicate to their 
friends on shore the situation on shipboard, while the 
suicide of the prisoners would be calculated to nerve the 
natives to a greater determination to avenge them. 

In the fear that the Indians would now attack the garri- 
son, Columbus was determined in some way to apprise his 
brother of the circumstances and put him on his guard. 
The rough sea, however, still precluded the possibility of a 
boat living to reach the shore, so Columbus was deeply 
distressed in mind how he should communicate the neces- 
sary intelligence, until a sailor named Pedro de Ledesma, a 
Biscayan, volunteered to swim through the breakers if the 
boat would take him sufficiently near. This proposal was 
eagerly seized upon, and the brave sailor successfully 
accomplished his hazardous undertaking. Reaching the 
camp unexpectedly, he was received with the greatest joy 
as a liberator of the garrison. 

The intrepid and herculean Ledesma found his country- 
men in a deplorable situation, shut up in their fortress, for 
the time safe from their savage foes, but contemplating with 
horror the hour when provisions should fail them and their 
ammunition be expended. Their alarm was also intensified 
by the depressing news of the tragic death of Diego Tristan 
and his companions, whose swollen bodies were now begin- 
ning to drift by on the stream, objects of contention among 



358 COLUMBUS. 

a thousand carrion birds. Tlie men therefore surrounded 
Ledesma and in frantic terms pleaded with him to urge the 
Admiral to save them from the certain destruction which 
awaited them if they continued in that deadly place. Al- 
ready they had been preparing to debark in canoes and 
gain the ships, a desperate undertaking only delayed by 
the high rolling surf and tempestuous weather. Further 
they declared that if the Admiral abandoned them they 
would embark in the caravel that was left as soon as it 
could be floated over the bar. 

Having received these gloomy and desperate reports from 
the beleaguered garrison, Ledesma set out on his return 
and succeeded again in passing the mad breakers in which 
it appeared that no human being could sustain himself a 
moment, and gained the ships, where he communicated the 
ominous tidings to Columbus. In such a situation some 
action was imperative, for to leave the men on shore would 
expose Don Bartholomew to the fury of a mutiny and end 
in a destruction of the settlement. There was no other 
alternative presented, therefore, than to embark the people, 
a thing which was impossible in the present turbulent state 
of the sea. The position of the ships was also perilous, 
subjected as they were to the hard-beating waves which 
threatened their annihilation, crazy, worm-eaten, rotten, as 
they were. 

Anguished in mind, debilitated by age and wrecked with 
physical suffering, Columbus became affected by a diseased 
imagination, and in this disturbed condition he beheld a 
vision, which he described in a letter to his sovereigns as an 
angelic admonition and encouragement conveyed in the 
similitude of a dream. This he regarded as a direct revela- 
tion, and it gave him strength to bear the misfortune which 
had wasted his energies and hopes almost to the limit of 
despair. Under this inspiration, as soon as the gale sub- 



i 

i 



THE NEW WORLD. 359 

sided he set about the extrication of his people. The 
caravel within the river's mouth was abandoned through 
inability to bring her over the bar, but by lashing canoes 
together a raft was made on which was conveyed the 
munitions, stores and men of the fortress to the two ships in 
waiting, after which the imprisoned caravel was dismantled 
and such of her equipment as was useful was towed out and 
put on board the vessels. When the men found themselves 
freed from their perilous position and safe on the ships with 
their comrades they manifested the wildest joy, giving them- 
selves up to the most exuberant transports, embracing each 
other in a very delirium of ecstasy and offering up prayers 
of gratitude and thanksgiving. Diego Mendez had superin- 
tended the embarkation and had otherwise rendered such 
efficient service that Columbus appointed him to the com- 
mand of one of the caravels in place of Diego Tristan, who 
had perished at the hands of the Indians, as described. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

After incredible sufferings and unexampled perils, costing 
the lives of a dozen brave Spaniards, it was with unspeak- 
able joy that towards the end of September, Columbus took 
his departure from the accursed coast of Veragua and pro- 
ceeded on his course for Hispaniola, which it was necessary 
he should reach as quickly as possible to repair the ships 
and procure provisions. Bad weather continued, however, 
and the extraordinary number of tempests that they had en- 
countered terrified the imaginations of the crews, who be- 
came persuaded in their minds that the Indians possessed 
some wondrous power of magic, and by a practice of their 
black arts had raised the storms and in the end would ac- 
complish their destruction. Finally, after thirty leagues had 
been accomplished, one of the caravels was found to be 
leaking so badly that it was necessary to abandon her, some 
time being lost in transferring her equipment to the two 
remaining ships. 

But even in this sorry condition the Admiral still had a 
yearning to prosecute his search for the strait which he be- 
lieved would surely lead him to the opulent country of 
Cathay. To pursue this desire, however, it was necessary 
for him to practice some deception, as his crews would have 
objected and possibly mutinied had they known of his per- 
sistence in seeking for that which they were now confident 
did not exist. But Columbus himself, overmastered by the 
situation which confronted him, presently abandoned his 
purpose, appreciative of the dejected state of his sailors, cn- 

j6o 



THE NEW WORLD. 361 

feebled as they were by their privations and fatigue. Thus 
steering north they proceeded until near the vicinity of the 
Queen's Gardens, when they were assailed by another tem- 
pest and in a few hours had lost successively three anchors 
and sustained a collision between the two vessels, in which 
both were greatly injured, and it was almost a miracle that 
they were not destroyed. At length they contrived to reach 
the coast of Cuba, at Macaco, where they rested a while and 
succeeded in procuring a few provisions, when they set sail 
again, endeavoring to beat up to Hispaniola against the 
force of contrary winds. The St.Jmnes, one of the caravels, 
was compelled to run into a port, while the Capitanay the 
other vessel, unable to gain the shore, was so buffeted that 
she was upon the point of foundering. Notwithstanding 
the fact that the pumps were worked with all the energy 
that the crew could command, the water had risen to the 
deck, and in another twenty-four hours the vessel would have 
undoubtedly sunk had she not, by what Columbus always 
declared was a miracle, reached the land in a sheltered cove. 

At this point necessaiy repairs were made, and on the 23d 
of June the two vessels pushed on to the northern coast of 
Jamaica, along which they sailed a considerable distance until 
they reached a beautiful harbor which he had discovered on 
a previous voyage, and to which he had given the appropri- 
ate name of Santa Gloria (Holy Glory). Here the two car 
avels, which had been reduced almost to wrecks and were 
upon the point of sinking, were fastened together and run 
aground. 

As the indications now pointed to a considerable stay at this 
place, some thatched cabins were erected on the forecastles 
and sterns of the two vessels in which the crews managed to 
make themselves comfortable, while Diego Mendez went on 
shore to obtain a supply of provisions from the caciques. 
3ut Columbus knew the fickle and untrustworthy character 



362 COLUMBUS. 

of the natives with whom he had now to deal. While they 
apparently cheerfully furnished a supply of provisions their 
sinister conduct was such as to give him much uneasiness ; 
for he appreciated the defenseless position in which he had 
thus been unhappily placed. The natives were exceedingly 
numerous and were provided with many large war canoes, 
which plainly indicated that they were a people little disposed 
to peace and were most probably in open hostility the greater 
part of the time with their neighbors. 

The caravels could not be put to sea again, and as all the 
master carpenters had perished in the disaster of the 6th of 
April no hope of other ships being built could be enter- 
tained. Not only was the Admiral thus greatly concerned 
for his safety, but he knew not how to procure aid or any 
means of making known to the Queen his discovery of the 
gold mines of Veragua, or of the countries which he had 
taken possession of in the name of their Catholic Majesties. 
Notwithstanding the fact that there seemed no possible 
means of transmitting a message, should he take the pains 
to prepare one, Columbus nevertheless concerned himself 
with the making of an elaborate report, probably trusting to 
some miracle for the means of its delivery. In this letter 
he detailed at great length not only the discoveries he had 
made, but all the incidents which had befallen him from the 
time of his departure from Spain until his arrival in wrecked 
vessels at the harbor of Santa Gloria. The utter despair 
which he felt at this time is indicated by the closing words 
of his letter, which are as follows : " I have hitherto wept 
for others, but now have pity on me, and, O earth, weep for 
me ! Weep for me w^hoever has charity, truth and justice." 

Ten days passed after the penning of this communication, 
and nothing occurring to relieve the anxiety of his situation, 
Columbus called to a private conference Diego Mendez, in 
whom his chief confidence was now reposed. At this inter- 



THE NEW WORLD. 363 

view (as reported by De Lorgues) he affectionately addressed 
that daring sailor as follows : " My son, none of those who 
are here but you and I know the danger in which we are 
placed. We are few in number, while these savage Indians 
are many and of irritable and fickle natures. On the slight- 
est provocation they could easily from the land set fire to 
our straw-thatched cabins and burn us all. The arrange- 
ment we have made with them for supplying us with pro- 
visions, and which they now fulfill with so much cheerfulness, 
may not continue acceptable to them, and it v/ould not be 
surprising if to-morrow they brought us nothing; nor have 
we the means of compelling them by force to supply us, but 
are left entirely at their pleasure. I have thought of a 
means of rescuing us if it meets with your views ; in the 
canoe you purchased some one may venture to pass over to 
Hispaniola and there procure a ship by which we all may be 
delivered from the perilous situation in which we are placed. 
Tell me your opinion of the matter." 

Mendez replied : " Seflor, the danger that threatens us is, 
I well know, far greater than is imagined. As to the project 
of passing from this island to Hispaniola in so small a vessel 
as a canoe, I hold it not only extremely difificult, but even 
impossible ; and I knov/ not who there is would venture to 
run the extreme risk of traversing a gulf of forty leagues 
between islands where the sea is so extremely impetuous." 

Notwithstanding the declaration of Mendez as to the impos- 
sibility of performing such a hazardous passage, the silence 
which now ensued and the dejected and hopeless appearance 
of Columbus on receiving this opinion prompted the brave 
sailor to offer himself as a sacrifice if need be to any of the de- 
signs which the Admiral might entertain. He thereupon ad- 
vised Columbus to assemble all his men on deck the following 
day and call for some volunteers who would undertake the 
perilous enterprise. Adopting this advice, Columbus did as 



364 COLUMBUS. 

Mendez had recommended, but the men regarded his pro. 
posal with astonishment, declaring it the height of rashness, 
whereupon the intrepid Mendez stepped forward and said : 
" Seftor, I have but one Hfe, yet I am willing to hazard it 
for the service of your Excellency and the good of all here 
present, because I hope that God, seeing the intention that 
governs me, will preserve me, as He has already done so 
many times." 

No man could appreciate a sacrifice like this more keenly 
than Columbus, and taking the noble Mendez to his bosom 
he embraced him fervently, and then looking upward, he 
said : ** I have a firm confidence that our Lord God will en- 
able you to overcome all the dangers that threaten." The 
courage of Mendez excited others of the Spaniards with a 
noble emulation, and several now came forward and signified 
their desire to accompany him. Through this means thir- 
teen other Spaniards volunteered their services, and in two 
canoes, and with six Indians in each as oarsmen, they set 
out on their perilous voyage. 

Fortunately the sky was clear and the surface of the sea 
was unruffled, giving propitious commencement to a voyage 
more hazardous than perhaps was ever before or since un- 
dertaken by any man. Their progress, however, was very 
slow and the Indians presently began to suffer exceedingly 
from thirst as well as from exhaustion. They had hoped to 
reach a small island called Navassa, which lay in their route, 
where they might obtain water and find refreshment and a 
short repose. But the third night passed without any sight 
of the expected land, while their privations had so increased 
that one of the Indians died and the others were so com- 
pletely prostrated that the Spaniards had themselves to take 
the oars. They had almost abandoned hope in their ex- 
tremity of suffering when Mendez discovered at break of 
day a dark line on the horizon, which, through God's provi- 



THE NEW WORLD. 365 

dence, proved to be the island of Navassa. Here an abun- 
dance of water was obtained, but some of the Indians, who 
could not be restrained, drank so immoderately that they 
died on the spot, while half the Spaniards gorged themselves 
to the point of serious illness. 

Having reposed for several hours on the shores of Navassa, 
the voyagers re-entered their canoes, and by rowing hard 
during the night they reached a point called Cape St. 
Michael, on the shore of Hispaniola, where they were hos- 
pitably received by the natives, who supplied them abun- 
dantly with provisions and administered to all their comforts. 
The exhaustion of the Spaniards, however, was so great 
when they had reached this point that Mendez rested for 
two days before beginning his journey to San Domingo. 
During this stay he fortunately learned that Ovando, who 
was now governor-general of Hispaniola, was in Xaragua, 
and accordingly he proceeded to that place to make his re- 
ports and to request the assistance of which Columbus stood 
distressingly in need. 

Though it had required only three days for these intrepid 
voyagers to make the passage to Hispaniola, so imminent 
had been the peril that Captain Fiesco, who had accom- 
panied Mendez as commander of one of the crews, could not 
induce any of his comrades to return with him to Santa 
Gloria and report to Columbus the success of their under- 
taking, considering that they had accomplished it through 
the interposition of Providence and that to attempt a return 
would be like challenging fate. Accordingly they accom- 
panied Mendez to Xaragua and thence to San Domingo. 

A secret presentiment seemed to assure Columbus that 
Diego Mendez had arrived safely in Hispaniola, and though 
his return was not so soon as had been expected he made 
his submission to the Divine will and used all his arts to 
soothe the secret irritations that agitated the minds of his 



366 COLUMBUS. 

sailors. But privations and sickness, as well as unheard of 
fatigues, created dissensions among the crews, who were 
confined to limited quarters and compelled to support life 
on a meager subsistence. They accordingly began to as- 
cribe all their sufferings to faults committed by Columbus, 
and to these disaffections serious accusations were soon 
added by those who constituted themselves the ringleaders 
of the disloyalty which was now to flagrantly manifest it- 
self. 

Columbus, while apprised of these mutterings and mutin- 
ous spirit, nevertheless diligently employed himself look- 
ing after the welfare of the men and administering to the 
sufferings of those who were prostrated. But the mildness 
of his manner, the assurance of his speech, and the kindly 
disposition with which he treated those who were sharing 
with him the unfortunate situation did not serve to restrain 
the guilty disposition of those who had conceived a violent 
enmity for the commander. Finally, on the 2d of January, 
1504, a seaman named De Porras placed himself at the head 
of forty-eight adherents and arose in open revolt. Their 
first purpose was to kill Columbus, and they were only 
restrained from this wicked act by the fear that the crime 
would be severely punished by the sovereigns and by the 
courageous front which Don Bartholomew opposed to the 
mutineers ; but taking six canoes which the Admiral had 
purchased from the Indians, and storing these with arms 
and provisions, they abandoned the Admiral and the few 
sick and infirm who were unable to accompany them. 

The departure of these mutineers was not made with signs 
of regret or the bidding of farewells, but with shouts of de- 
fiance and revilings, and not before they had incensed the 
Indians by violent appropriation of much of their property. 
Thus Columbus became exposed to the anger of the natives 
who he believed would hold him accountable for the out- 



THE NEW WORLD. 367 

rages of the disloyal men who had abandoned him. But 
he bravely bore up against these added wrongs, and though 
scarcely able to support his own physical infirmities he ex- 
erted his efforts to relieve the pains and illness of those 
more helpless than himself, for whom he felt the tenderest 
sympathies. 

De Porras, at the head of his followers, set out in ten 
canoes and proceeded along the coast until they gained the 
eastern extremity of the island, when, unwilling to trust 
their own skill in the management of the canoes, the rebels 
prevailed upon several Indians, by liberal gifts and many 
promises, to accompany them, and when at length the 
weather was favorable they set out for Hispaniola. 

Scarcely had the canoe squadron gained a league seaward 
when a contrary wind arose, followed by rapid swelling of 
the sea, which became so threatening that they turned to- 
wards the shore. But now a fresh trouble confronted them. 
The canoes being without keels and heavily loaded it was 
impossible to so manage them as to prevent the waves from 
dashing over, nor could vigorous baling long keep them 
afloat unless some remedy were applied. The cause for 
alarm growing with the increasing wind, the mutineers 
threw overboard everything that could be spared. But this 
sacrifice of stores being insufificient to prevent the continued 
shipping of water they compelled all the Indians to fling 
themselves into the sea, except a few who were needed to 
paddle the canoes. If any refused to obey this order they 
were thrust out by the sword or lance, and being too far 
from shore to risk an attempt to gain it by swimming, the 
poor Indians kept by the canoes, grasping at the sides when 
their strength was spent. The Spaniards, fearing that 
these efforts at self-preservation would result in overturning 
the canoes, savagely cut off the hands of the swimmers, or 
more humanely stabbed them to death with their swords; 



368 COLUMBUS. 

so that in this way eighteen of the Indians miserably 
perished, none surviving save those who had been retained 
to do the work of paddling. 

By sacrificing their stores and murdering nearly all the 
natives who served them in the desperate undertaking to 
reach Hispaniola, the wretched band regained the coast of 
Jamaica, enraged at the miscarriage of their own crimes. 
Dissatisfaction now began to show itself, and some of the 
mutineers were in favor of returning to Columbus and, 
confessing the evil of their conduct, implore his forgiveness ; 
but a majority resented this proposal, preferring to lead a 
life of lawlessness and the indulgence of a riotous license 
which opportunity now offered, since they could force sub- 
sistence from the Indians and compel them to minister to 
their licentious passions. Thus they went from village to 
village despoiling the natives and committing all manner of 
excesses, exciting in their victims not only a hatred of them- 
selves but of all Spaniards. 

It was not long before Columbus began to experience 
the effects of the marauding incursions of the mutineers. 
The Indians, considering him as in sympathy with the free- 
booters, through being of the same race, exhibited a wan- 
ing confidence and gradually reduced the offerings of pro- 
visions, until presently they broke off all intercourse, leav- 
ing Columbus and his feeble followers to face a threatened 
famine. To add to the dangers of his situation there was 
the fear of an uprising of the natives, who were beginning 
to manifest a disposition to hostility. In this emergency, 
calculated to quicken the wits of a resourceful man, Colum- 
bus conceived a happy expedient for restraining not only 
any evil designs which the Indians might have, but also for 
regaining their confidence and assistance. By some means 
unreported, Columbus had knowledge of a total eclipse of 
the moon about to occur, and he concluded to utilize this 



THE NEW WORLD. 369 

event to impress the natives with the belief that it was a 
mysterious portent of the sky sent as a forewarning of the 
Great Spirit's intent to punish them for having withdrawn 
their hospitality from the white or celestial strangers who 
had visited their shores. 

To carry his scheme into effect he sent his interpreters to 
the neighboring caciques to reveal to them the calamity of 
famine and pestilence which would be swiftly sent upon 
them as a visitation of Divine anger. As an evidence of 
the truth of this prophecy he declared that at a certain hour 
on the second night following the moon would gradually 
pale and then fade entirely away in the heavens. 

The natives at first treated this direful prediction with 
disregard. But at the time appointed the most dreadful 
fear fell upon them, as looking towards the star-spangled 
vault of a clear sky they perceived a shadow deep and awful 
spreadiug across the moon, and before the obscuration was 
complete the villages and forests were resonant with wail- 
ings and cries to the Great Spirit for mercy. In response 
to their appeals Columbus offered to lift his voice in prayer- 
ful petition to the world's Master to grant deliverance to 
the natives on condition that they Avould supply him and 
his people generously with food and continue faithful in 
their friendship as long as he remained among them. To 
this condition there was a universal assent and with a thank- 
fulness which showed the depth of their sincerity. There- 
upon Columbus retired to his cabin and remained until the 
moon emerged brightly from the earth's penumbra, and 
when he ventured forth it was to be hailed by the grateful 
Indians as one who possessed the special favor of the Deity, 
and their promises they according faithfully fulfilled. 

But though their immediate wants were supplied, the 
followers of Columbus still had much to complain of, for 
their quarters were both small and insecure, while sickness 
24 



J/' 



COLUMBUS. 



became so general among them that they grew first despond- 
ent and then irritable. So long a time had elapsed since 
Mendez and Fiesco had departed on their hazardous journey- 
to obtain relief that the impression prevailed they had 
perished, nor could the kindness and assurances of Colum- 
bus dispel the gloomy, despairing thoughts of his restless 
men. Out of this irritation soon sprang another mutinous 
spirit, under the incitements of two leaders named respect- 
ively De Zamora and De Villatoro, who decided to seize the 
remaining canoes and in them endeavor to make a passage 
to Hispaniola. But almost at the moment when their plan 
was to be executed the white sails of a vessel were seen in 
the offing, and a few moments later it was discovered to be 
bearing towards the harbor of Santa Gloria. At this gra- 
cious sight the voice of murmuring became hushed and 
joyful anticipations replaced the despondency which had 
harassed the stranded explorers so many weeks. 

Nearer came the vessel ; but when it reached the harbor 
entrance anchor was cast and a boat lowered in which an 
officer with half a dozen seamen came ashore. The ship 
proved to be one sent by Ovando in command of Diego de 
Escobar, a renegade who had been a follower of Roldan and 
once condemned to death by Columbus. The boat came 
close to the stranded ship, but without debarking Escobar 
delivered his message from Ovando and waited until Co- 
lumbus could write a reply. He then deposited in a boat a 
cask of wine and a side of bacon as presents from Ovando, 
after which he took his departure without even so much as 
giving a promise to relieve the suffering men at any future 
time. 

The circumstance of a ship being sent by Ovando to the 
stranded explorers was proof that Mendez had successfully 
performed his mission, but in Escobar's refusal to extend 
relief or transport them to San Domingo the men affected 



THE NEW WORLD. 371 

to discover more evil designs. Columbus, while sharing the 
despondency of his followers, sought to revive them by as- 
surances that his letter from Ovando contained a promise 
that a large ship would be sent to their aid as soon as it 
could be made ready, and excused his neglect to rescue them 
immediately by the statement that he had no suitable vessel 
at hand for the purpose. 

Feeling the need of increasing his force, and appreciating 
the importance of conciliating the friendship of the natives, 
harassed as they were by the outrages of the mutineers, 
Columbus sent to the rebels, as an offering of good-will, a 
piece of bacon left by Escobar, exhorting them to return 
under promise to remit their crimes with a full pardon and 
an agreement to give them a place on the ship which he said 
would soon be sent for his deliverance. But De Porras was 
so distrustful that when he learnt of the approach of the 
agents of Columbus he took care that they should not have 
communication with any but himself. He told the men 
that he had no desire to return to the Admiral ; that his 
party were fully satisfied with their condition and desired 
only to be left alone in peace. But he added that in case 
two ships of rescue should arrive Columbus should give him 
and his followers one of them with half the stores and pro- 
visions, and he followed this suggestion with a threat that 
if this were not done they would come and take it for them- 
selves. Such was the communication which De Porras re- 
turned to the peaceful overtures that were made by Colum- 
bus. But to satisfy his followers, whose fidelity he did not 
fully trust, he declared to them that the purpose of the Ad- 
miral was simply to get them into his power and then 
punish them for their laudable endeavor to save themselves 
from the certain death which awaited them had they re- 
mained on the stranded vessels. He further treated the 
story of the visit of a ship from Ovando as a delusion and 



372 COLUMBUS. 

a snare. He said that Columbus was in league with the 
powers of darkness and a practicer of the black art. The 
ship that had seemed to approach the harbor was nothing 
therefore but a phantom conjured to deceive the men who 
had remained faithful to him. He counseled his followers 
further, that the only way remaining to them was to fall 
upon Columbus and his minions, take them prisoners, and 
then conduct their affairs with respect to the one great 
question of escaping from the island. 

The effect of these misrepresentations was all that De 
Porras could desire. The rebels rallied to his call and made 
a descent upon the stranded vessels with the intention of 
either taking Columbus prisoner or killing him outright. 
But their murderous scheme was discovered by some friend- 
ly Indians who brought information of the plot to the Ad- 
miral, who assembled fifty of his trusted soldiers under the 
command of Don Bartholomew, and sent them out to repel 
the attack. When the two forces approached each other on 
the 19th of May (1504), Bartholomew, acting under the Ad- 
miral's direction, sent messengers to confer with the insur- 
gents and offer terms of settlement. But these De Porras 
refused to hear, confident in his ability to execute his pur- 
pose. The first aim of the rebels was to kill Bartholomew, 
and for this purpose six of the most intrepid followers were 
stationed about De Porras with instructions to follow him 
into the fight. The attack was accordingly made directly 
upon Don Bartholomew himself. But this courageous 
man, who was an intrepid fighter as well as a great com- 
mander, received his assailants with such vigor that several 
of the rebels fell dead under the blows of his sword. 
Having disposed of the first antagonists he came face to 
face with De Porras himself, and a personal duel was fought 
in which, at the first pass, Don Bartholomew was wounded 
through the buckler. But the sword fortunately hung in a 



THE NEW WORLD. 373 

cleft, and seizing his enemy in his powerful grasp Don Bar- 
tholomew overmastered him, but sparing the wretch's life 
Avas satisfied to take him prisoner. No sooner had their 
leader fallen thus early in the fray than the insurgents with- 
drew, leaving Don Bartholomew to return in triumph to 
the Admiral, bringing De Porras and a half-dozen other 
prisoners. When De Porras was brought before Columbus 
he no doubt expected a punishment commensurate with his 
crimes. But humane and generous impulses were always 
predominant in the heart of the Admiral, and instead of 
executing him on the spot, as he might justly have done, 
he was satisfied to hold him a prisoner and even extend a 
proposition of surrender to the other mutineers, promising 
freely to pardon and receive them into his service as before, 
which magnanimous proposal they were glad to accept. 
But as a measure of prudence Columbus deemed it ad- 
visable to hold De Porras a prisoner until such time as he 
could be tried and convicted according to law. 

About the time that affairs were thus reduced to quiet in 
Jamaica, the long-expected succor came in the form of two 
ships well supplied for the deliverance of the stranded 
Spaniards. A year had now elapsed since the departure of 
Mendez in the almost forlorn hope of reaching Hispaniola 
by canoe. During this time he had assiduously agitated 
the rescue of the Admiral and his companions. It is the 
opinion of Las Casas that public sentiment in Hispaniola 
gradually bore more and more heavil}' upon Ovando for his 
seeming neglect of his great countryman in his distress, and 
the time came when the governor was constrained to make 
a virtue of necessity by sending out a relief expedition 
from San Domingo to Jamaica. 

One of the ships ordered for this purpose had been 
equipped by Diego Mendez himself out of the revenues due 
Columbus, and to him was therefore intrusted the command, 



374 COLUMBUS. 

while the other was committed to Diego de Salcedo, who 
had been one of the Admiral's officers at San Domingo. 
On the 28th of June (1504) the two vessels arrived at the 
harbor of Santa Gloria, and the long stranded mariners were 
taken on board with their few remaining effects, and the 
sails were at once set for San Domingo. But the weather 
was so inclement and the winds so constantly violent and 
contrary, that it was not until the 13th of August following 
that the voyage was accomplished and the aged discoverer 
of the New World was permitted once more to land in the 
town which he had founded as the capital of his New Indian 
Empire. 

We are gratified to learn that upon his arrival the reaction 
in favor of Columbus was so great that he was hailed with 
enthusiasm by the very men who had sent him forth with 
gyves on his wrists to be carried as a common criminal to 
Spain. It is not possible to suppose that these acts of 
public applause, temporary and fictitious as they were, 
could be grateful to Ovando even though his rival were an 
aged man stricken with many maladies and worn down un- 
der the accumulation of many griefs. Nevertheless the 
governor made a show of uniting in the kindly reception, 
taking the Admiral even to his own house and extending to 
him the fullest courtesy and respect. In a short time, 
however, causes of difference began to work between the 
two men, and the irrelations henceforth, though superficially 
amicable, were never sincere. The first dispute between 
them arose over their respective authority to punish the 
prisoners that Columbus had brought to the island for trial. 
The governor claimed that Jamaica as well as Ilispaniola 
was a part of his government, while Columbus contended 
that under the last letters issued to him by Isabella he had 
full rights to try and punish any offenders against his 
authority. Another ground of complaint which Columbus 



THE NEW WORLD. 375 

urged against Ovando was neglect to collect the revenues 
which were due him from the island according to the 
original compact with the sovereigns. Under these stipula- 
tions Columbus was entitled to an eighth of all the tributes 
collected from the natives, as well as the products of the 
mines, and he had, therefore, reason to expect a large sum 
to his credit upon his return, unless the revenues had been 
wasted and his rights neglected. But he found himself 
practically penniless, and thus again dependent upon the 
generosity of the crown. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Under the governorship of Ovando affairs in Hispaniola 
had become more deplorable than they had appeared at any 
time since the Spanish discovery. We may therefore pause 
here in the narrative of incidents in the life of Columbus in 
order to hastily sketch the progress of events in that island 
from the time of the arrival of Ovando down to the return 
of Columbus. We have seen how great a company of colo- 
nists and adventurers, 2,500 in all, he brought with him, and 
with how much eclat he came to San Domingo and under- 
took the duties of viceroy after the temporary suspension 
of Columbus from that office. 

The men whom Ovando had thus brought to the New 
World were, with the exception of seventy colonial fami- 
lies, of the same general character as those who had pre- 
ceded them. Fully a thousand of the number had gone 
out with the expectation that gold would be found in such 
great abundance throughout the island of Hispanolia that 
it would be gathered in unlimited quantities at the expense 
of no other exertion than the shoveling of it into bags 
which were brought along for that purpose. They had no 
sooner arrived, therefore, than a great rush for the gold 
fields of Hayna was made, each man taking with him his 
mining implements and a limited supply of provisions. 

There is no disappointment so bitter as that which follows 

a miner who sets out under the glowing prospects excited 

by stories of inexhaustible wealth, and coming to the mine 

so flatteringly described finds that the precious ore exists 

376 



THE NEW WORLD. 377 

in the sparsest quantities and is obtainable only by the 
most onerous and persistent exertions. This experience has 
been common to many men in many ages. 

The Spaniards made a rush across the intervening coun- 
try, and reaching the gold fields undid their packs and be- 
gan to dig. It required only a day or two to dispel the 
illusion. Here and there small quantities of fine gold-dust 
might be found in the sand, and occasionally particles of 
the precious metal would glitter in a spadeful of earth 
thrown up by hands unused to working with delving imple- 
ments. But fatigue and exhaustion came after a few hours 
of this unrequited labor, and then the miners, disgusted and 
hungry, sat down by running streams and springs of water 
to devour their provisions. But ever devouring and never 
producing soon exhausted the supply which they had 
brought with them, and the Indians refusing to supply them 
with either fruit or products of the fields, the hungry miners 
were brought face to face with famine, and they gave over 
their golden dreams for the harsh necessity of seeking food 
to avoid starvation. Worn out, homesick, despondent, 
starving, many of them perished in the forests, but a ma- 
jority returned to San Domingo and inaugurated a mild 
reign of terror. 

The situation was so serious that the governor undertook 
to deal with the mining question by creating a regular sys- 
tem under which the business of gathering gold might be 
profitably conducted. He saw that the disappointment of 
those who had come out under his promise of great gain was 
such that it might end in compromising him not only with his 
followers but with the sovereigns ; for not a few had influ- 
ential relatives residing at court who would voice and urge 
their complaints. To afford them some relief and encour- 
agement, Ovando issued an edict reducing the percentage 
of the gold due to the crown to one-fifth, and then inaugu- 



378 COLUMBUS. 

rated a system of slavery by which each Spaniard was allowed 
according to his rank the use of the free labor of a certain 
number of Indians. The very evils which had been the 
source of so much complaint against the former administra- 
tion, namely, that the Spaniards were abusive to the Indians, 
treating them with untold cruelties by compulsory labor in 
the mines and fields, were thus revived by Ovando, and it 
was not long before the severity of his system surpassed all 
that had been witnessed or heard of before. 

As a justification of his course the governor set forth to 
the sovereigns that a reduction of the natives to regular 
labor under the authority of a master class was a necessity 
of the conditions present in the colony ; that otherwise the 
tributes could not be collected ; that the natives were by 
nature indolent, and in short that the only method of bring- 
ing them to the blessings of a cizilized and Christian life 
was to subject them to servitude under which a Catholic 
training could be the more effectually given them. The 
Queen herself was deceived somewhat by that part of the 
argument which related to the allotment of the Indians as 
slaves to the Spaniards, who were expected to exert a 
Christianizing influence over them. Little did her Majesty 
understand the profound hypocrisy of this excuse. Like- 
wise she failed to comprehend the utter indifference of the 
Spanish masters in Hispaniola to all considerations of the 
welfare of the wretched natives. 

The Spaniards proceeded under their license to demand 
of the caciques the required assignment of laborers, and the 
chieftains were compelled by the government to comply. 
At first there was some show of respect for native rights, 
but this presently ceased. In the beginning it was agreed 
that the Indians should have a small wage as recompense 
for their labor, and that they should also be instructed in 
the catechism of the Church and be baptized by the priests. 



THE NEW WORLD. 379 

But the whole thing was a mockery. Even the limit of the 
period of service to six months of the year was presently 
extended to eight months, and might have been extended 
to twelve, since the feeble constitution of the natives gener- 
ally gave way under the intolerable tasks imposed upon 
them during their first term of servitude. 

No sooner was the system regularly organized than it be- 
came apparent that the native foods, mostly of fruits, would 
not sufifice for the men engaged in severe toil. But the 
Spaniards had no other food to waste upon their Indian 
slaves, being concerned in getting the most out of them that 
was possible, regardless of what the result might be. Some- 
times a very small distribution of meats was made to them, 
but such was the hunger of the poor wretches that they 
struggled and fought like ravening animals for the scraps 
and bones that fell from the tables of their masters. As 
they sank and fainted under their tasks the lash of exacting 
masters began to descend upon their backs. Their flagging 
industry was quickened by the horrid thong of the driver, so 
mercilessly applied that to this added misery they succumbed 
in such numbers that only a small proportion survived to 
the end of their term of service, and many of these perished 
before they could reach their homes, which in not a few 
cases were as much as a hundred miles distant from the 
place of their labors. Thus the roadsides and forests were 
strewn with the victims of this horror and despair, and the 
air was polluted with the decay of human bodies. 

While these indescribable abuses prevailed in the vicinity 
of San Domingo, in the mines of Hayna another form of 
calamity came upon the hapless Indians in the fairest west- 
ern province of Hispaniola. It has been recounted how 
the followers of Roldan had been granted a partition of land 
in Xaragua, whither they had betaken themselves after the 
collapse of their rebellion. It is needless to affirm that such 



380 COLUMBUS. 

men, without family ties and under no restraint of civil 
authority, were incapable of developing into anything better 
than licentious vagabonds. The Spaniards thus distributed 
throughout a once happy district were a standing menace 
to the peace and prosperity of the natives. They were no 
better than robbers and tyrants following no other law than 
the impulse of passion and degenerate will. 

A short time after the foundering of the squadron which 
Ovando had dispatched to Spain with Bobadilla, Roldan 
and others, Behechio, who held the scepter of native 
authority in Xaragua, died and was succeeded by his sister, 
the amiable, beautiful and devoted Anacaona. Her acquaint- 
ance with Don Bartholomew has been mentioned in a 
former chapter, wherein was described the royal welcome 
which she accorded him and the devoted friendship which 
she ever manifested for the Spaniards. Nevertheless she 
seems to have discriminated between the good and bad and 
to have gained by superior intelligence a knowledge of the 
degraded character of the Roldan followers who were in her 
territory. Against these she probably cherished a just 
enmity, as they were and had been a constant source of 
menace and trouble to her government. With respect to 
Ovando and his government, however, she had so far as the 
record shows a favorable opinion. 

The reader will readily perceive how easil}^ under such 
circumstances, the Roldan rebels living in Xaragua might 
become the agents of mischief between the Spanish authority 
and the native government. We are, therefore, not surprised 
to learn that local difficulties and disagreements between 
the late Roldan rebels and the Xaraguans might be reported 
with the wildest exaggerations to the authorities at San 
Domingo, with appeals for interference. The minds of the 
governor and his counsel would thus be poisoned against 
the natives, and in the disturbed if not chaotic condition of 



THE NEW WORLD. 381 

the government there would be little disposition to accord 
justice to a people who had been outraged in every possible 
manner almost from the time that the Spaniards set foot 
upon Hispaniola. This advantage was accordingly taken. 
The Spanish Xaraguans began to complain against Anacaona 
and excited the governor against her on the charge that she 
was secretly concerting a rebellion and had already made 
arrangements to that end. They sought to substantiate 
this by pointing to the fact that the Indians had delayed 
the payment of the last tribute with a view to collecting 
provisions and preparing themselves to make a descent upon 
the settlers. 

Alarmed at these reports, which he seems to have been 
disposed to believe without investigation, Ovando deter- 
mined to visit Xaragua and settle all difficulties in his own 
arbitrary way. Accordingly he collected an army of three 
hundred infantry and seventy cavalry which he equipped in 
the most thorough manner for an expedition of conquest, 
though he was careful to give it out that his purpose was 
merely to pay a state visit of friendship to Queen Anacaona. 
The latter, having no distrust of her enemy, gathered all her 
chieftains, head men and nobility, including men and women, 
into her town and prepared to receive the governor in a 
manner which had been so captivating to Don Bartholomew 
and his cavaliers. A description of their reception may be 
repeated with added circumstances of picturesqueness and 
enthusiasm. Again the beautiful maidens of noble birth 
came forth dancing, waving palm branches and singing their 
native songs, many of which had been composed by the 
Queen herself, for as already stated she was an Indian 
Sappho. The finest house was set in order for the governor, 
and the army was well quartered and provisioned ; nor was 
anything omitted by the Queen to manifest her regard for 
the Spaniards. To provide an entertainment for her visitors, 



382 COLUMBUS. 

many games were introduced, and for three days such sports 
as the Indians had been able to devise for the white men 
were indulged in to the great delight of all present. But 
even while this pleasant entertainment was in progress and 
the friendly regard of the Queen was being manifested, the 
purpose grew and matured in the mind of Ovando to 
destroy with horrid perfidy the unsuspecting people whose 
friendly hospitality appeared to be unbounded. He con- 
ceived the project of accomplishing his purpose in so 
dramatic and spectacular a manner as to make the event one 
of the most tragic incidents in the annals of the times. He 
informed the Indians at the conclusion of their sports that 
he and his men would in their turn perform a game for the 
entertainment of the Queen and all present. The spectacle 
should be given in the public square, and the games would 
be a jousting match, performed after a manner the Spanish 
chivalry had borrowed from the Moors. Meanwhile Ovando 
ordered his soldiers to appear in the public square not only 
with reeds for lances and sticks for swords, but also with 
their real weapons whetted and charged for slaughter. 

The situation was such as to favor the atrocity. Nearly 
all the caciques and Xaraguans were gathered in a large 
house which had been assigned to Ovando, while the public 
square was filled with the common people. The governor 
had just risen from a dinner given in his honor by the 
Queen, and had gone out into the open air to pitch quoits 
with some of his officers. As soon as the cavalry arrived it 
was marshaled in array. Ovando, while lifting a quoit in 
one hand, raised the other and grasped a gold ornament 
suspended from his neck as a signal for the massacre to 
begin ! Instantly a trumpet sounded, the cavalry put their 
lances at rest, the infantry drew their swords, and simul- 
taneously the murderous army rushed to the assault. The 
house where the caciques were assembled was surrounded 



THE NEW WORLD. 383 

and all of them taken prisoner to the number of fort)'. 
Some authorities declare there were eighty. These were 
bound and then put to torture in order to extort a 
confession of a plot conceived by the Indians to slaugh- 
ter the Spaniards. Some of the Indians, in their terror 
and suffering, shrieked out impossible things respecting 
their Queen, and these false ejaculations were considered 
by the defamers as legal proof of guilt. Then the cavalry 
began in earnest. The horsemen rode down and thrust 
through the natives without discrimination or mercy. The 
aged, the children, the women were all given up together to 
the horror of a bloody and mutilated death. The caciques 
were confined within the house, and being bound to prevent 
the possibility of their escape, the building was fired and 
they all perished in the most miserable and horrible manner. 
Anacaona was rudely seized by vulgar soldiers, and being 
bound with chains was carried to San Domingo, where she 
was subjected to the mockery of a trial, and without the 
shadow of legal evidence and against all indications of guilt 
was hung in the streets. 

Horror and frightful criminality, however, did not termi- 
nate the riot with Anacaona's execution, for the massacre 
extended until all the better families in Xaragua were deci- 
mated. The terrible story runs to the effect that for six 
months together the Spaniards, breaking into bands and 
making their way from village to village, and even to the 
fastnesses of the woods and hills, cut down the unoffend- 
ing and defenseless natives with all manner of added atro- 
city, until Xaragua was a desolation. When the work was 
finally completed and the ruin needed no further touch of 
infamy, Ovando wrote to the sovereigns a gilded report of 
how he had succeeded in restoring good order and how he 
had founded a town in commemoration of the happy de- 
liverance of the Spaniards, to which he had given the sig- 



384 COLUMBUS. 

nificant name of Santa Maria de la vcrdadera Paz, that is, 
St. Mary of the True Peace. 

The destruction of Xaragua marked the conquest and 
consequent ruin of the fourth of the native kingdoms of 
Hispaniola. There now remained only the fifth and last, 
namely, the mountainous district of Xiguey. The reader 
will remember that it was upon the shores of this province 
that the first blood had been shed by Spanish soldiers in 
the West Indies. The people were Caribbeans by descent, 
and were, in the year 1504, ruled by a cacique named Cota- 
banama, an original Goliath of Gath. His stature is rep- 
resented as being of herculean proportions, and he was no 
less famous for his strength, while his reputation as a great 
warrior was coextensive with the island. For the past 
twelve years the relations between the Indians of this dis- 
trict and the Spaniards had been strained. On one occa- 
sion a Spaniard on the coast, accompanied by his blood- 
hound, had hissed the brute upon one of Cotabanama's 
under caciques, who was torn to pieces for the sport of the 
foreigner. This gross outrage rankled in the breasts of the 
Indians, and they determined to seize the first opportunity 
to have their revenge. In course of time a boat bear- 
ing eight Spaniards came to the little island of Saona, in 
sight of the coast of Xiguey. The natives, fired with a re- 
membrance of the horrible outrage perpetrated upon one of 
their innocent people, surrounded the crew and massacred 
them to a man. This was regarded by Governor Ovando 
as an insurrection, and he immediately fitted out a force of 
four hundred men, under command of Juan de Esquibel, to 
march into the Indian country, put down opposition and 
administer exemplary punishment for the crime. 

The story of this expedition is but a repetition of others 
which have already been described. The Spaniards being 
in irresistible force marched through the Indian villages 



THE NEW WORLD. 385 

slaughtering without regard to age or sex and perpetrating 
cruelties which fairly shame the race. In many instances 
not only men but women were hung and quartered, and 
other inconceivable cruelties, such as the lopping off of hands 
and feet of natives who had fallen into the power of the 
remorseless Spaniards, were practiced under the name of 
exemplary punishments. This riot of murder continued until 
it is estimated by Columbus himself, as well as by LasCasas, 
who was an eye-witness of many of these atrocities, that 
six-sevenths of the entire native population were destroyed. 
Human depravity could go no further, and we recoil with 
horror at the mention of such crimes, especially under 
banners which bore the sign of the Cross and in a country 
which had been consecrated to the propagation of the 
Holy Faith. Cotabanama was hunted like a lion, and 
refusing all overtures for peace with such human blood- 
hounds, he fought to the last extremity, but was finally 
seized in a cave in which he had taken refuge with his wife 
and children. Being first overpowered by a great force he 
was bound in chains and carried back to San Domingo, 
where he was publicly executed on the gibbet as another 
example of the unmercifulness and rapacious cruelty of the 
Spaniards. 

We have seen in a former chapter in what manner Co- 
lumbus was received in San Domingo after his escape from 
the perils which for nearly a year beset him in Jamaica. 
We have also mentioned the beginning of the difficulty and 
misunderstanding between him and the governor in the 
matter of De Porras and his fellow-prisoners. As to his 
local affairs, the Admiral found them, as already stated, in 
an extremely unsatisfactory condition. Alonzo de Cavajal 
informed him on his arrival that the revenue had been held 
back in many instances and that his attempts to collect the 
same had been impeded by the covert or open opposition 
25 



386 COLUMBUS. 

of the governor. Other causes for complaint existed, 
and the Admiral may well be excused for finding fault with 
Ovando's policy towards the Indians, which had almost 
totally obliterated the native population. But Columbus 
was also dissatisfied with the whole condition of his en- 
vironment. The two years which had been named by the 
King and Queen as the limit of his suspension from office 
had about expired. The sensation and reaction in his favor 
produced by his late arrival in the colony began to wane, 
and he decided to return to the mother country at the 
earliest possible date. There before the King and Queen 
he would renew his plea, and he hoped to be heard by their 
considerate Majesties in his own cause, to the end that they 
might bestow upon him justice with honor as a reward for 
his great toils and sacrifices. The Admiral knew not that 
at this very date Isabella had taken to her couch with that 
lingering malady strangely mingled of mental and bodily 
griefs from which she was never to recover. 

It was not long after his arrival at San Domingo, there- 
fore, that Columbus with the consent of the governor began 
to prepare for his departure for Spain. Two ships were 
fitted out for this purpose, the command of one being given 
to Don Bartholomew, while the Admiral had charge of the 
other in person. On the I2th of September the vessels 
left the harbor of San Domingo, but were not far at sea 
when the weather became stormy and the masts of Colum- 
bus' ship were broken and carried away, rendering her unfit 
for the voyage. Being in haste to reach the mother coun- 
try, the Admiral sent back the disabled ship and transferred 
himself and companions to the vessel commanded by Don 
Bartholomew. Still the weather continued severe and the 
masts of the remaining vessel were likewise seriously in- 
jured, so that progress was extremely slow. Nor was this 
condition of affairs improved at any time during the voyage ; 



THE NEW WORLD. 387 

for the weather continued at all times so extremely rough 
that it was not until the end of the fifty-eighth day after 
leaving San Domingo that the caravel carrying Columbus 
and his brother reached the port of San Lucar. Thus con- 
cluded the ill-starred fourth expedition of discovery on the 
7th of November, 1504. 

The afflicted Admiral was so exhausted by his physical 
sufferings that he was unable to support his own weight, 
and had, therefore, to be borne on shore in a litter con- 
structed for the purpose. He was then taken at the earliest 
practicable moment to the city of Seville, where among his 
friends, attended by faithful kinsmen and loyal companions^ 
he hoped in a short time to revive from the fatigues of his 
long voyage. Realizing, as he must, his failure to accom- 
plish the glorious things which he had promised for the 
crowns of Castile and Aragon, harassed by enemies who 
had the ears of the court, it is and will ever be a matter of 
surprise and admiration to note the enthusiastic faith by 
which the veteran explorer, tottering under the accumulated 
griefs of years, was still borne on buoyant wings in the 
direction of those dreams and visions that had haunted 
him since the days of his youth. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Great men as a rule are the victims of great embarrass- 
ments, and usually through the world's inappreciation. 
Those who have accomplished the most beneficent things, 
who have placed the greenest laurels on the brow of civili- 
zation, who have won the eternal applause of mankind and 
gained a place in the affections of humanity because of 
what they did in life, have most frequently been targets for 
the world's abuse. It is a proverb as lamentable as it is true 
that no man is fully appreciated until after he is dead. 
Wealth receives its honors in the flesh, while genius finds 
its reward only beyond the grave, because prejudice and 
envy cannot cast their poisonous darts across the valley of 
death. When a nation discovers a redeemer it is to perse- 
cute him first and worship him afterwards ; hence, were it 
not for monuments and the slower justice of biography, 
humanity would be without emulous examples, and philo- 
sophic ambition would not attain to even the shadow of a 
dream. 

The truth of these observations is scarcely more conspic- 
uously attested in the life of Jesus than it is in the career 
of Columbus, since both fell victims to the hostility of a 
depraved human nature in its envy of the truly good and 
beneficent. 

While intending or implying no comparison, we may be 

pardoned for the sake of illustration in saying that what 

Jesus was in the Divine essence Columbus was in his secular 

character ; the one perfect and, therefore, worthy of wor- 

388 



THE NEW WORLD. 389 

shipful reverence as God ; the other, with the imperfections 
of the human, entitled to the highest laudations as a man. 

With the great measure of his deserving, who had prac- 
tically enlarged the world by half and set in the crown of 
Spain a jewel so lustrous that all the gems of earth grow 
pale in its light, Columbus was in his latter days not only 
neglected, but his distinguished services, instead of aggran- 
dizing, rendered him the victim of every wrong that mad 
envy and avarice could inflict. And these marplots under 
the wings of royalty pursued him even to the grave, while 
anger and hate would fain have disturbed him there, so 
implacable were these foes of justice. 

Though robbed most shamefully by Bobadilla and Ovando 
and brought, through their conniving, to the verge of pen- 
ury, yet so buoyant was the nature of Columbus that he 
hoped for a correction of his wrongs when he should lay his 
complaints before Ferdinand and Isabella. Poor and deeply 
afflicted though he was, and confined to his bed in Seville, 
he trusted to the influence of those few friends who still 
remained faithful to him. Among these was Diego his son, 
who was now of age but still in the service of the Queen as 
page ; also his brother Don Bartholomew, Diego Mendez, 
Alonzo de Cavaial, a nobleman named Geronimo, and 
Diego de Deza, the latter an old friend who had been elevat- 
ed to the bishopric of Palencia. Through the aid of these 
and his own efforts, and by letters and proofs which he 
would lay before his sovereigns, Columbus did not doubt 
that he would recover the dignities and property to which 
he was so clearly entitled. 

The complaints which Columbus had to make were set 
forth in a lengthy communication which he addressed to 
their Majesties very soon after his return to Seville, and 
contained two specifications : ist. That he had been de- 
prived of his revenues, and that the rentals due from his 



390 COLUMBUS. 

estates in San Domingo and his percentage from the mines 
were withheld by officers of the crown, thus virtually re- 
ducing him to poverty ; 2d, That his honors, titles and 
rank which had been conferred and confirmed by royal 
guarantees in the form of patents and charters were jeopar- 
dized, if not nullified, by his suspension from office. 

The enormity of withholding from Columbus his per- 
centage of one-eighth, but afterwards one-tenth, of the gold 
gathered in Hispaniola, and his consequent reduction almost 
to mendicancy in his old age, may be estimated when we 
reflect upon the aggregate yield of the Indian mines during 
the administration of Ovando. The question has been 
carefully considered by Robertson for the year 1506. Ac- 
cording to his estimates the yield of the mines for that 
and several preceding years amounted annually to a sum 
equal to about $500,000. Considering the greater pur- 
chasing power of gold and silver in the sixteenth century, 
it would hardly be an exaggeration to say that his annual 
revenues from this source, had they been justly paid him, 
would have been equivalent in value to more than a million 
of dollars of our present currency. This would have given 
to Columbus a revenue which, apart from all other resources, 
would have lifted him from beggary to wealth and enabled 
him to prosecute his one supreme ambition of recovering 
the Holy Sepulcher from the possession of the Moham- 
medans. 

In the letters which he transmitted to his sovereigns he 
justly complained of the withholding of his dues, saying 
that he was compelled to live by borrowing ; that he was 
unable to own in Spain a roof to shield him from the 
elements, and that he had no place of resort but the com- 
mon inn, and that even the small charges for attention 
there he was unable to pay. But besides these he had other 
complaints to make. He reminded the sovereigns that the 



THE NEW WORLD. 391 

men who had accompanied him on his last perilous voyage 
had received no pay since the time of their departure, in 
consequence of which their famihes had suffered greatly for 
the necessaries of life. Not only did he urge the King to 
an immediate payment of the rewards to which the sailors 
were entitled, but he wrote a special letter to his son Diego 
urging him to remind the King of the infinite toils and perils 
which the sailors had endured, and that they had brought 
home to Spain and to all the world invaluable tidings for 
which their Majesties ought to thank God and rejoice. 

Before sufficient time had elapsed for a reply to his com- 
munication Columbus transmitted another letter to the 
King, urging upon him the justice as well as the necessity of 
a restoration of the honors and titles of which he was vir- 
tually deprived. At the conclusion of this second letter he 
appended a note animadverting upon the government of 
Ovando, citing many facts in the provisional governor's 
administration about which the sovereigns ought to be 
greatly solicitous. 

To these communications, however, the answers of the 
court were complimentary but non-committal, since Fer- 
dinand, anxious to annul the charters under which grants 
had been bestowed upon Columbus, adopted the policy of 
temporizing with the situation until the beneficiary should 
die, an event which he had every reason to expect would 
not be long deferred. He argued within himself, " If we 
can but placate this aged and importunate Admiral for a 
little longer his voice and pen will both be still in the in- 
curable paralysis of death; after that we shall deal as we 
may with his son and kinsmen, taking pains always to in- 
terpose between them and their rights such excuses and 
obstacles as shall make their letters patent and the charters 
granted to the father of no effect." 

His inability to obtain any decisive answer from the King 



392 COLUMBUS. 

gave Columbus great worriment of -mind, intensified by the 
physical sufferings which confined him for weeks to a bed 
in the little inn where he had found refuge after his arrival 
in Spain. Preparations were being made to bring De 
Porras to trial under the charges which had been preferred 
by Columbus, and it was very necessary that he should at- 
tend at the court to give his testimony. His anxiety, there- 
fore, was so great that he twice ordered a litter to be pre- 
pared on which he might be carried to Granada. But on 
both occasions the project had to be abandoned through 
the intensity of his sufferings and the inclemency of the 
weather. His friends in the meantime were exerting them- 
selves in his behalf. But his enemies at court were more 
numerous and influential, and succeeded in overcoming 
vv'hatever small inclination the King might have had to 
accord him justice. And thus, week after week and month 
after month was spent by Columbus in the deepest anxiety 
of mind, without the least indication of obtaining that 
which had been solemnly guaranteed by royal compact, 
and which he had earned through eight years of toilsome 
and unremitting service to the Spanish sovereigns. 

It at last became clear to the apprehension of the suffer- 
ing and despairing veteran that the King was against him and 
his cause. As for the Queen, who had so long been his 
friend and benefactress, her last days had come. Clouds 
and shadows darkened around her halls and chamber. Her 
son, the Prince Juan, was dead, while Juana, married to the 
Archduke Philip, had contracted an unfortunate alliance 
with a man whose sympathies and devotion were all abroad. 
The Princess herself was already, in the first years of her 
married life, beclouded by a mental malady through which 
her faculties were jangled out of tune and her mind finally 
brought to chaos. These troubles fell so heavily upon 
the Queen that she became the victim of melancholy. 



THE NEW WORLD. 393 

Disease preyed upon her and she sank under the accu- 
mulated griefs of broken womanhood. She had been the 
best sovereign of her age. Her abiHties were great and her 
beauty was praised by all her contemporaries. Her appli- 
cation to the duties of the crown was assiduous and success- 
ful, and according to the measure of her powers and the 
limitations of her education she exerted herself to benefit her 
subjects and diffuse a generous friendship among the nations. 
Her true greatness and sympathy for the oppressed are 
evidenced by her interposition between the humble natives 
of the West Indies and the cruelty of her Spanish subjects. 
There can be no doubt that she faithfully sought to protect 
them from the wrongs and rapacity of her people and bring 
them to the standard of such poor civilization and religion 
as the fifteenth century could supply. How great must 
have been her grief when in her last days reports reached 
her ears of the horrible abuses practiced upon the Indians 
by Ovando and his colleagues ! One of her last rational 
acts was to order his recall, and she exacted of the King a 
pledge that this deed of justice should be at once fulfilled, 
a request, however, which was wholly disregarded until 
circumstances five years afterwards rendered that cruel 
officer's dismissal a necessity. 

Isabella fully appreciated that the day of her departure 
was near at hand. She had not yet reached the end of her 
fifty-fourth year, but her bodily powers were completely 
shattered and her deeply religious mind now turned almost 
with aversion from the noise and splendor of the world to a 
contemplation of the future. She accordingly prepared 
her will, giving particular directions not only respecting 
the disposition of her worldly estates, but also how she 
should be buried, asking that her body might be committed 
to a low sepulcher in the Alhambra of Granada and that 
no other monument than a plain stone properly inscribed be 



394 COLUMBUS. 

set to mark her last resting-place. But in her dying moments 
she did not forget her loyalty and devotion to the King, 
and among her last requests was one that she might at last 
be laid beside him when all the things of this earth had 
faded from his Majesty's view. Thus prepared for the great 
event, she sank away, and on the 26th of November, 1504, 
expired at the town of Medina del Campo. Her body was 
conveyed with great pomp and interred according to her 
directions, but was afterwards transferred to a tomb in the 
royal chapel of the Cathedral at Granada, where the King, 
at his death on January 23d, 1516, was buried beside her. 

The news of the death of his friend and patroness was all 
that Columbus could bear. To that true friend of discovery 
for many years he had turned, like the crusader gazing on 
his crucifix, and now in his old age was he indeed left naked 
to his enemies. But deep as was his dejection over the 
death of his greatest friend, and supreme as were the suf- 
ferings which confined him constantly for a long while to 
his bed, his mind was to revive to a contemplation of 
glorious accomplishments of ambitions conceived even in 
the depth of his extremity. Continuing to petition the 
King for a restitution of his honors and emoluments, and 
receiving in reply letters that constantly flattered but 
gave no substantial promises, Columbus at length finding 
himself somewhat improved decided to proceed to Segovia, 
to which place Ferdinand had now transferred his court, and 
there renew in person the importunities which had thus far 
proved wholly unavailing. At this time there was a gov- 
ernment edict forbidding people to ride on mules, as it was 
reckoned that the introduction of these cheap and easy- 
going animals as a means of conveyance had distracted at- 
tention from the production of horses, in consequence of 
which the breeds of the latter had become deteriorated. 
Columbus, therefore, desiring to make his journey on this 



THE NEW WORLD. 395 

safer conveyance, asked permission of the proper authorities 
at Seville to make the trip on mule-back. This being 
granted, in May, 1505, he set out, accompanied by a few 
faithful attendants, for the Spanish Court. 

The arrival of the Admiral at Segovia was attended with 
no excitement. The people gazed on him merely as an 
old, broken-down, sorrowful and disappointed man, whose 
deeds were already forgotten in the public mind, and who 
from an object of great pomp and circumstance had fallen 
to a condition so lowly as no longer to attract the atten- 
tion of any of the populace. The King, however, granted 
him an audience and even made a pretense of receiving 
him with accustomed cordiality. He condescended also to 
hear from the discoverer an account of the fourth expedi- 
tion and its results. Columbus accordingly narrated the 
whole, emphasizing in particular the value of the gold mines 
of Veragua and indicating the benefits which might accrue 
from the establishment of colonies on that coast. While 
the King affected interest in the narrative, at the conclusion 
of the interview he dismissed the Admiral with no substan- 
tial evidence of a purpose to restore him to the honors of 
which he had been so unjustly deprived. But Columbus 
continued to persist in his demands until the King, as a 
means of freeing himself from the annoyance of importunity, 
proposed to refer his claims to arbitration. To this Colum- 
bus consented, until he discovered in the papers an agree- 
ment to likewise refer his rights to the viceroyalty and 
governor-generalship of the Indies. As an agreement to 
such arbitration would have put in debate his titles for 
which he held the royal patents, Columbus could not, while 
in the possession of his senses, consent to the opening of a 
question so fatal to all his rights. He accordingly declined 
to submit his major claim to arbitration, since about that 
there was under his charter no possible doubt. The whole 



396 COLUMBUS. 

matter was accordingly put aside and the conference of 
arbitration was never held. 

After this miscarriage of his claims Columbus renewed 
his persistence with the sovereign for a restitution of his 
honors and for such a decree as would compel the officers 
of Hispaniola to pay him his dues. He appealed to the 
conscience and justice of the King to save him in his old 
age from the hardships of poverty and the shame of dis- 
honor. But month after month continued to roll by, and 
though Ferdinand treated him with marks of suitable 
regard, and continued to be effusive with his deceptive as 
surances, all favorable action was postponed or evaded. 

The last formal effort made by Columbus with King Fer- 
dinand related to the young man Diego. To him the fond 
father looked as his successor and defender of his fame. 
The jeopardy in which his titles stood admonished the 
Admiral that the time had arrived when it was advisable 
for him to abdicate all his claims in favor of his son. In 
pursuance of this design he sent a last petition to his sov- 
ereign, in which he solemnly proposed to waive his own 
rights and honors in favor of Diego. He besought the 
King to confirm the youth under the charters granted to 
himself in the government of the Indies and in the preroga- 
tives and benefits of which he had been unwarrantably de- 
prived so long. But this petition, as had been the former, 
was evaded by Ferdinand, and it became evident, even to 
the persistent spirit of the discoverer of the New World, 
that he had nothing further to expect from his Catholic 
Majesty of Spain. Sorrowfully he says in a letter to the 
Archbishop of Seville: " It appears that his Majesty docs 
not see fit to fulfill that which he and the Queen (who is now 
in glory) promised me by word and seal. For me to contend 
with the contrary would be to contend with the wind." 

The end of 1505 was now near at hand, having been spent 



THE NEW WORLD. 397 

in a fruitless effort to vindicate his rights and to persuade 
the King to do a simple act of justice as some recompense 
for the imperishable glory which Columbus had reflected 
upon his crown. Confined to his bed at a tavern in Segovia, 
Columbus was now as hopeless in mind as he was infirm in 
body. Yet out of this suffering condition he was aroused 
in the following year by a rumor, soon confirmed, that the 
Princess Juana and the Archduke Philip, her husband, were 
on their way from Seville to Valladolid, to which place the 
King had removed his court from Segovia. A brief hope 
seems to have been inspired in him by this incident, and 
though in the tortures of old age and infirmity, he deter- 
mined to seek an audience with their Highnesses. After 
proceeding a short way, however, his extreme sufferings 
admonished him of the impossibility of carrying out his 
intentions, and he was reduced to the necessity of prepar- 
ing a communication to their Highnesses which he trans- 
mitted through his brother Don Bartholomew. In this 
letter he made profession of his profound loyalty and devo- 
tion to the Spanish crown, and described the severe afflic- 
tions and numberless misfortunes by which he was detained 
from going to them in person. In the most touching 
language he reminded them of the great things which he 
had accomplished for the glory of Castile first and the 
honor of mankind afterwards, and folloAved this with a 
touching tribute to the virtues of her mother, the Queen. 

In penning his letter, which evidently aroused in him 
ambitions as intense as those which prompted him to his 
first voyage, he described with glowing enthusiasm the 
vision which now arose in dazzling splendor before him. 
Long cherished hopes and aspirations revived like a dying 
flame, and the aged breast, storm-beaten and exhausted, 
throbbed and heaved with the fires of an expiring enthu- 
siasm. Old, infirm, tottering on the very brink of the grave 



398 COLUMBUS. 

as he was, he yet told the Princess that still greater things 
remained for him to accomplish. It was of course the 
rescue of the Holy Sepulcher from the infidel Islamites. 
That great enterprise, most famous of all his ambitions, he 
declared he could yet undertake and accomplish if her 
Highness, after the manner of her noble mother, would hear 
him for his cause. Nothing in human history has a touch 
of greater sublimity than this dying passion of a decrepit 
and worn-out man, rising as it were from the couch of his 
penury and despair to place himself at the head of an 
army of Spanish crusaders to wrest the City of David from 
the hated Moslemites. 

It is on record that the appeal of Columbus had its due 
effect upon the princess and her husband. They gave as- 
surances that the cause of the Admiral should receive their 
earliest attention, the sincerity of which declaration was 
shown in the cordial reception of Don Bartholomew and 
the great interest which the communication evidently ex- 
cited. But however encouraging the reply of their High- 
nesses, he for whom the tidings were intended was never to 
know the results of the message which his brother was pre- 
pared to bring from the daughter of Isabella. It may well 
be believed that the expiring force of his great spirit was 
exhausted in the composition of the letter to Juana and her 
husband. At all events, after the departure of Bartholo- 
mew he sank back upon his couch and never again rallied 
to his accustomed animation. He was able between the 
first and middle of May to prepare one or possibly two 
codicils to his will, in which he made a more particular dis- 
position of his property. He divided his possessions as 
though all the revenues to which he was entitled would be 
paid to his legitimate heirs, and he consequently made pro- 
vision not only for his immediate but even remote relatives, 
and besides setting aside an annuity for his brothers and 



THE NEW WORLD. 399 

Dona Beatrix Enriquez, mother of Fernando, he ordered that 
certain sums might be used for the benefit of others to whom 
he had become indebted, and also for the establishing of a 
charitable institution in Genoa. Besides these bequests the 
Admiral gave small sums to certain companions and serv- 
ants whose fidelity had won his trust, among these being 
Bartholomew Fiesco, the companion of Diego Mendez in 
the perilous canoe voyage from Jamaica to Hispaniola ; nor 
did he forget Diego Mendez, whom he recommended to 
the sovereigns for appointment as governor of some of the 
West Indian possessions. 

Thus was accomplished the last act in the life of Christo- 
pher Columbus. Death was now at his door. But the 
Admiral had become so weak through his sufferings that he 
hailed him as a welcome guest. 

The glories, the pride and the lofty ambitions which 
bound him to earth were now dissolving into clouds, be- 
hind which were for the moment concealed those greater 
and more substantial rewards for which his benignant soul 
thirsted. Cruel destiny, unfathomable wrongs, had denied 
him a death-bed in a courtly chamber invested with the 
luxury which kings infinitely less worthily enjoy, but had 
consigned him to a room that bespoke the poor comforts of 
a miserable little hotel. No mementos of art, no rich fab- 
rics of the weaver's loom, but with bare floors and walls 
hung with no other decorations than the chains which had 
bound him as the seal of a king's ingratitude ! There on 
a bed of pain, forgotten by those whom he had enriched 
with a measureless opulence, he lay watching the advanc- 
ing shadows that were obscuring the world, and noted the 
roseate hues that reveal the approach of eternal day break- 
ing beyond. Beside him were sorrowful watchers in the 
persons of his two sons, the devoted Fiesco and some 
Franciscan fathers, who in fulfillment of his last wishes had 



400 COLUMBUS. 

clothed him in the habit of the Third Order of St. Francis 
and prepared him for the last struggle. His mind con- 
tinued clear even to the moment of dissolution. After 
exhorting with pious admonitions his sons, he received the 
Sacrament of Penance, then requested that the chains 
which he had worn as the badge of a nation's shame might 
be buried with him. The remembrance of the wrongs he 
had suffered, which his shackles recalled, appeared to some- 
what revive him, and he talked for a while in great serious- 
ness of mind on spiritual matters, indicating that in these 
was his sole concern in the last hours of his life. When 
again he felt the chilling paralysis of death stealing over 
him he asked for the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, and 
was able to give all the responses himself ; but his pulse 
was feeble and his breath came fitfully. Turning his head 
slightly in a last movem.ent towards the Franciscan father, 
who stood sorrowfully awaiting the final summons, he 
asked in broken speech if it were not Ascension day. 
Receiving an affirmative reply, his face appeared to be 
illumined with intense satisfaction as he repeated the 
words of our expiring Saviour on the cross : In mantis tnas, 
Dominc, comniendo spirituvi mcnni. " Into Thy hands, O 
Lord, I commend my spirit." In this wise, on May 20, 
1506, he fell into that sleep which is eternal waking, and his 
great soul that had been so violently tempest-tossed in the 
turbulencies of a stormy life sailed now across peaceful 
waters and entered a harbor where the anchorage is secure 
and where faithful service meets a just reward. His age 
was about seventy years. 

Ferdinand had succeeded in his infamous policy of evad- 
ing the claims of one of the most importunate men Avho 
had ever haunted his court in quest of justice and restitution. 
The silent form lying in Valadolid could never trouble him 
further. The great Admiral was gone from earth to that 



THE NEW WORLD. 401 

higher King who would restore to him not only the rights 
for which he had vainly contended, but grant unto him a 
crown as a reward for the incomparably great services he 
had rendered to the world. The sovereign might well 
assume the virtue of sorrow, particularly when he saw that 
the death of Columbus produced a great sensation in the 
kingdom, the people at this late hour beginning to appreci- 
ate the luster which he had reflected upon their country. 
Preparations were therefore made for an elaborate funeral, 
which was celebrated with much pomp in the city where the 
Admiral died, and his body was interred with great civic 
honors in the parochial church of Santa Maria de la Antigua. 
After seven years, or in 15 13, the remains of the discoverer 
were transferred to the Carthusian monastery of Las Cuevas, 
in Seville, where in the chapel of Santo Christo the body 
was for a second time committed to the sepulcher. There 
it reposed for twenty-three years. In February, 1526, Don 
Diego, the son and successor of the Admiral, died and was 
entombed by the side of his father in the monastery. But 
ten years afterwards the bodies of both father and son were 
exhumed and transferred to Hispaniola, where they were 
reinterred in the chapel of the Cathedral at San Domingo. 
Here it might well be supposed they would remain forever 
in the soil of the beautiful land which he had discovered and 
settled, but which had been despoiled by the ruthless hand 
of the avaricious Spaniards. In 1795-96 the island of 
Hispaniola, however, was ceded by Spain to France, when 
it was reckoned as a fitting thing that the remains of the 
discoverer of a new world should be again disturbed and 
committed to a soil above which the flag of Spain still 
floated. A commissioner was, therefore, appointed to 
transfer the sacred relics to the Cathedral of Havana in the 
island of Cuba, where it was supposed, until within the last 
few years, they reposed. 
26 



402 COLUMBUS. 

Investigation recently made by a learned German historian 
has led to the belief that the relics found reposing in a 
square casket in a recess of the Cathedral sanctuary of San 
Domingo and conveyed with such military pomp and 
religious ceremony to the Cathedral of Havana were not the 
bones of Columbus, but were those of some ecclesiastical 
dignitary whose remains had been committed to the sacred 
crypt in a casket without inscription. The chief grounds 
upon which this opinion rests is the statement that Columbus' 
bones, after the third exhumation, were placed in a reliquary 
on which was stamped his coat of arms, list of his titles, 
name, date of birth, death and time of last removal ; whereas, 
the chest which contained the mortuary relics that were 
transferred to Cuba was without inscription or lettering of 
any kind. But this question will in all probability remain 
as long in contention as the island which he first sighted, 
the place of his nativity and the date of his birth, disputes 
which hardly admit of conclusive settlement. 

The Spanish government rejects the conclusions of the 
German historian referred to, and adheres so strenuously 
to the belief that the remains transferred from San Domingo 
to Havana were those of the great discoverer, that when Spain 
surrendered her sovereignty over Cuba after a war with the 
United States in 1898, another removal of the mortuary 
relics was made. Spanish sentiment, never mindful of 
Spanish injustice, demanded that the remains of Columbus 
should rest upon the soil — not such as he consecrated by the 
act of discovery — over which the Spanish flag waves. The 
government, therefore, after relinquishing Cuba, through 
the arbitrament of war, sought and obtained permission 
to transfer the precious remains from Havana to the 
Cathedral of Seville, which was done in the early part of 
1899, ^'^<^ the services attending the deposition of the casket 
were made especially imposing by the people of the rich old 



THE NEW WORLD. 403 

city from which Columbus equipped his third expedition of 
discovery. 

But though we may not positively know where the remains 
of the great Admiral repose, his memory is no less effectually 
preserved in history as well as by monumental tributes that 
proclaim in granite and marble the imperishable glory and 
honor in which the world holds his name and deeds. 
Already before the death of King Ferdinand that monarch 
had honored himself rather than the discoverer of America 
by ordering a monument to his memory. This was done 
while the remains of Columbus were still sleeping in the 
monastery of Las Cuevas. The tomb was said to be worthy 
of the great man to whom it was erected. The inscription 
already granted as a motto to Columbus by his sovereigns 
was repeated in his epitaph : 

" A CASTILLA Y A LEON 
NUEVA MUNDO DIO COLON." 

"_To Castile and Leon Columbus gave a New World." 



CHAPTER XXII. 

The life of Columbus may be fittingly concluded with 
some account of his descendants, of their success in main- 
taining their rights and their vicissitudes of fortune down 
to the time when the male line of the Admiral became 
extinct. No sooner was his father's body put into the 
tomb than the young Don Diego came forward and claimed 
under the will all the rights, prerogatives, titles and emolu- 
ments which Columbus had enjoyed, and of which in recent 
years he had been so unjustly deprived. It was hardly to 
be expected, however, that Ferdinand, Avho had dealt so 
unjustly with the father, would be more liberal and just 
with the son, and we are not surprised, therefore, to learn 
that he began at once to employ the same temporizing and 
crafty policy which he had so successfully used with the 
father. 

It was not long until the King was drawn by the emer- 
gencies of his reign into Italy, but not until he had conceded 
to Don Diego, first at Villa Franca in June of 1506, and 
afterwards at Almazan in August of 1507, what may be 
called his commercial and property rights under the testa- 
ment of his father. This was, in a word, a grant that the 
one-tenth of the revenues derived and derivable from the 
Indies and terra firma discovered by Columbus in the West 
should go to his son. But Don Diego, like his father, was 
more concerned about his titles, his rank, his honors as 
viceroy and governor-general, than he was about his dues 
and percentages of gold. The young Admiral accordingly 
404 



THE NEW WORLD. 405 

lost no opportunity of representing his claims to the King, 
and finally made bold to ask the sovereign in so many 
words whether he would or would not invest him with the 
titles which had been granted to his father. The question 
being thus explicitly put, the King could no longer tem- 
porize and was thus made to express his will. He therefore 
refused, and as an excuse for so doing brought forth a prin- 
ciple of the Spanish constitution, rcafifirmed by an edict of 
1480, that henceforth no grant in perpetuity should be 
made of any ofifice by the crown which involved the exer- 
cise of judicial functions. He claimed that the viceroyalty 
of the Indies was of this interdicted kind, and that, there- 
fore, though he himself by the stipulations and agreements 
of 1492 had given such a title to Columbus, the same was 
unconstitutional and invalid. 

After the return of the King from Naples, in 1508, Don 
Diego again renewed his claim, but this time in another 
form. He respectfully petitioned the sovereign for the 
privilege of instituting a suit against the crown before the 
Council of the Indies, in which his cause, and involving 
therewith the cause of his father, should be legally heard 
and decided. The request was granted and the suit was 
accordingly instituted, continuing for more than a year and 
resulting in the triumphant establishing of Don Diego's 
claims. The crown was fairly beaten, and it only remained 
for the young Admiral, under judgment of the court, to 
assume the titles and honors of which his father had been 
so long deprived. 

This trial occupied a great part of the years 1508-9, and 
the record, which has been investigated by the historian 
Muiloz, is of great value as throwing light upon all the 
Columbian controversy. The defense of the crown was 
first of all that above stated, namely, that an entailed vice- 
royalty granted to Columbus was only for his naturi\l life; 



4o6 COLUMBUS. 

that even this power had been limited by the suspension of 
the Admiral from of^ce ; that, moreover, Columbus had not 
been, as was claimed, the first discoverer of terra fir ma but 
only of the Indian islands ; and that, finally, the crown of 
Spain must defend itself and its prerogatives against the 
tendency of unconstitutional and dangerous acts as a 
measure of self-protection and perpetuity. 

All of these questions were ably and impartially consid- 
ered before the tribunal, and though decided in favor of 
Don Diego, the nature of the Spanish administration and 
the power of the crown were such that the application of 
the decision to Diego's rights was for a while impeded. 
The young man, however, had by this time secured by 
marriage an alliance of the greatest possible advantage to 
himself and his posterity. He had won the heart of Dona 
Maria de Toledo, daughter of Fernando de Toledo, who 
was grand commander of Leon and a man of great influence 
and rank in the kingdom. Greater even than he was his 
brother Fadrique de Toledo, better known as the Duke of 
Alva, who was not only powerful by his rank and wealth 
and talents, but was personally a favorite at court and with 
the King himself. Such was the reputation which the 
Columbian family, in spite of its foreign origin and the 
intrigues and enmities of hostile factions, had attained not 
only in Spain, but in all the world, that the two princes of 
Toledo, one the father and the other the uncle of Dofta 
Maria, assented to the marriage of that noble lady to Don 
Diego. Thus was secured an alliance whereby the Colum- 
bian line was to be blent with that of the ancient Spanish 
nobility. 

In view of this condition and relationship Ferdinand gave 
a reluctant and cold assent to the validity of the judicial 
decision ; but at the same time he would go no further 
than to concede to Don Diego the same dignity and rights 



THE NEW WORLD. 407 

which had been for some years and were now enjoyed by 
Ovando, Governor of Hispaniola. This construction cun- 
ningly excluded the title of viceroy, and possibly excluded 
the extension of the young Admiral's rights to other islands 
and to terra firnia. Nevertheless, in a general way, it was 
agreed that Don Diego should assume the titular dignity of 
viceroy and that his noble spouse should be recognized as 
Vice-Queen of the Indies. 

Such was the termination of the famous controversy. 
Up to this date Ferdinand had failed to comply with the 
promise which he had made to the dying Isabella, to recall 
Ovando. Circumstances now rendered this long-deferred 
duty imperative, and in 1509 it was accordingly performed. 
The young Admiral prepared for his voyage to the Indies, 
gathering around him many noble and courtly people who 
were to accompany him to San Domingo and compose his 
court. His uncles, Don Bartholomew, and Don Diego, 
senior, were of his retinue. By the beginning of summer, 
1 509, everything was in readiness, and the fleet prepared for 
the occasion sailed on the 9th of June from the harbor of 
San Lucar. Diego arrived at his destination and assumed 
the government of Hispaniola, which he began to admin- 
ister with great ceremony and splendor. Ovando was 
relieved of his duties and sent home with the returning 
fleet ; but he went away in wealth and honor, and the 
purpose of Isabella to prosecute him for his crime in mur- 
dering the innocent people of Xaragua, and in particular 
for the execution of Anacaona, perished with her merciful 
Majesty. 

It was not long after Don Diego had assumed the govern- 
ment of his island before the purpose of Ferdinand with 
respect to the Indies was clearly manifested. A royal 
decree was framed by which the coast of Darien was detached 
from all connection with the insular parts and was divided 



4o8 COLUMBUS. 

into two provinces, the governorship of one of which was 
assigned to Alonzo de Ojeda and the other to Diego de 
Nicuesa. This act was resented and resisted by the 
Governor of the Indies, but all to no purpose. The slow 
and toilsome processes of history went on and the wishes 
of Diego Columbus were disregarded, for his viccroyalty 
was in name rather than in fact. 

It was evidently the purpose of the King that the author- 
ity of Diego should be restricted to Hispaniola, or at most 
to the Indian islands. It was clearly not intended that his 
jurisdiction should extend to that terra firvia which was a 
part, indeed the principal part, as the event was soon to 
show, of the new lands discovered by the first Admiral. 
This conflict of purpose was from the beginning a source of 
embarrassment and distrust between the crown and the 
young Governor of the Indies. 

Diego, however, entered upon his government with much 
spirit and with many magnanimous purposes. Like his 
father he was an optimist, and like his father he was destined 
to inherit perplexity and disappointment from the age and the 
people with whom he had to deal. He soon found that the 
malcontent, and jealous and insubordinate dispositions with 
which the Admiral had had to contend had been trans- 
mitted to himself. First of all a certain Miguel Pasamonte, 
who was the royal treasurer of the island, became the head 
of an anti-administration party, the motive of which was an 
ostentatious devotion to the interests of the Spanish crown. 

With this movement Fonseca, head of the Indian Bureau 
and now a privy councilor of the King, was in hearty 
accord. Not satisfied with having pursued the elder Ad- 
miral to his last day he now took up and renewed the war- 
fare on the younger. Nevertheless Don Diego for a season 
held his own and presently added laurels and palms to his 
administration by the peaceably occupation or conquest — ■■ 



THE NEW WORLD. 409 

if conquest it might be called which brouglit no shedding of 
blood — of Cuba. This event took place in 15 10 and was at 
once reported to the King. 

Meanwhile the opposition to the government of Don 
Diego acquired much strength and many complaints were 
sent home to Spain against him. At length, in 15 12, the 
King gave attention to these murmurings to the extent of 
sending Don Bartholomew to assist the young Admiral in 
the duties of his administration. Another circumstance 
also induced Ferdinand to show this mark of confidence in 
Bartholomew, and that was the recent failure of both the 
royal governors in Panama. Ojeda and Nicuesa, with their 
governments, went by the board ; and the King was con- 
strained, under the circumstances, to recognize the rights 
of Don Diego on the mainland of the isthmus. 

Ferdinand accordingly directed that Don Bartholomew 
should repair to Veragua, and assume the duties of governor 
under the more general authority of his nephew. But this 
large and promising scheme was destined to come to 
naught. Don Bartholomew had already received as his 
special patrimony the island of Mona, off the Cuban coast. 
But he was now an old man ; the arduous enterprises in 
which he had been so long engaged had shattered his con- 
stitution. Sickness came on, and in the year 15 14 Don 
Bartholomew died, upon which event the island government 
of Mona was recovered by the King, who thus again showed 
his disposition to limit the Columbian grants to the life or 
lives of the present holders. 

The death of Don Bartholomew was a serious loss to 
Diego, for thereafter his enemies became bold in preferring 
such complaints that in 1515 he was called to Spain to make 
a report of his administration and to vindicate his rule from 
the charges brought against him. He there conducted his 
c^efens? with the greatest ability and came forth from the 



410 COLUMBUS. 

inquest with a flying banner. It is probable tliat had Fer- 
dinand lived he would henceforth have resolutely supported 
the governor and repressed his enemies, but the King him- 
self now came swiftly to the closing scene. On the 23d of 
January, 1516, he died, transmitting his crown, as the world 
knows well, to his grandson, that Charles V. who was 
destined to be for more than a quarter of a century the 
most conspicuous figure of the age. Henceforth Don Diego 
was thrown into relations with the new sovereign, the vast- 
ness of whose inheritance, the complications of whose reign 
were so pressing and multifarious as to make it almost im- 
practicable for him to give adequate attention to the affairs 
of the Indies. 

In the meantime a new historical force had become opera- 
tive in Hispaniola, which was destined to enter largely into 
the general movements of civilization in the New World and 
to cast its shadow, portentous and vast, across the annals 
of several centuries. This was the introduction, first into 
Hispaniola and afterwards into all the West Indies and 
Spanish America, of negro slavery. By the time of which 
we speak, namely, about 15 15, the Indian inhabitants of 
Hispaniola had been virtually exterminated. A disconso- 
late and despairing remnant survived from the horrors of the 
war and the repartimiento. But the survivors were weak 
and inefificient even under the lash of the master. 

The necessity, or at least the advantage, of slave labor had 
increased as the native slaves were decimated and swept 
away, and to supply such labor the suggestion of kidnap- 
ing and transporting slaves from Africa was heartily re- 
ceived and adopted. Some shiploads of Guinea negroes were 
brought over, and it was soon found that they were able to 
endure the severest trials and cruelties of servitude. The 
trade became at once popular, and the great infamy of 
modern times was established under the auspices of the 



THE NEW WORLD. 411 

Spanish crown in the new countries which Spanish enter- 
prise had revealed and opened for occupation. 

It was not long, however, until the system of servile labor 
brought a measure of retribution to those by whom it was 
instituted. In 1522 a negro revolt broke out in Hispaniola, 
and it was accompanied with much violence and destruction 
of life and property before it could be suppressed. 

Don Diego had now established his family on what 
appeared to be an excellent foundation. Five children had 
already been born of his union with Doiia Maria de Toledo. 
These were two sons, Luis and Christopher, and three 
daughters, Maria, Juana and Isabella. The Columbian line 
seemed in fairest prospect of perpetuity and honor, but Don 
Diego himself was involved in ever-recurring difficulties with 
the crown. This is to say that his enemies in Hispaniola 
and the enemies of his family in Spain were constantly 
active and embroiled him once and again in serious compli- 
cations with the young Emperor. To counteract the evil 
influence of his enemies Diego was obliged to spend the 
last years of his life in Spain, following the court from place 
to place and seeking to obtain redress, or a vindication of his 
conduct and the re-establishment of his rights and honors. 

Dofia Maria, acting as Vice-Oueen of the Indies, remained 
with her sons and daughters in San Domingo. Don Diego's 
death occurred at the town of Montalvan on the 21st of 
February, 1526. His rights and titles and honors were 
transmitted by will, and in accordance with the principles 
of primogeniture, to his oldest son, Don Luis, who became 
his successor under the authority of the mother. At the 
time of his father's death Don Luis was but six years of 
age, and Dofia Maria deemed it expedient to go to Spain 
and have him confirmed in the government which had been 
derived from his grandfather. An audience was obtained 
from the young Empress, and the rights and titles of the 



412 COLUMBUS. 

third Admiral were confirmed, with the exception that the 
title of viceroy was refused to Don Luis by the Emperor. 

A period of comparative quiet now ensued, covering the 
minority of the third Admiral. In 1538 Don Luis brought 
suit before the Council of the Indies for the recovery of his 
title as viceroy. Institution of these proceedings resulted 
in the question being submitted to arbitration, by which it 
was declared that henceforth the political honors of Don 
Luis should be embraced under the two titles of "Admiral 
of the Indies " and " Captain-General of Hispaniola." In 
course of time a second compromise was made in which the 
young governor accepted as a finality the titles of " Duke 
of Veragua " and " Marquis of Jamaica," instead of the 
more comprehensive and honorable and significant title of 
viceroy of the Indies. 

Nor was Don Luis permitted to enjoy for any great time 
the smaller honors which had been substituted for the greater. 
He died about 1542 leaving two legitimate daughters by his 
wife, Dofia Maria de Mosquera, and one illegitimate son 
named Christopher. The younger of the two daughters 
entered a convent and became a nun, and the claim of Don 
Luis seemed to rest upon his remaining daughter Philippa. 
The fact of the death of Don Luis without a legitimate son 
terminated the right male line of Christopher Columbus, 
and brought in shortly afterwards one of the most compli- 
cated and, indeed, important lawsuits of the century. 
There were many parties to the cause, each having his own 
interests to conserve, and the issue involved the consider- 
ation of the whole Columbian generation from the period 
before the birth of the great Admiral down to the close of 
the sixteenth century. 

The three daughters of the late Don Diego had all been 
married to important personages. Maria, the eldest, was 
•yvcdded to Don Sancho de Cardono ; Juana, the second. 



THE NEW WORLD. 413 

was married to Don Luis de Cueva, and Isabella, the third, 
to Don George of Portugal, Count of Gelves. There stood 
also in the field of view as a claimant the illegitimate Chris- 
topher, son of Don Luis, and in particular his legitimate 
daughter Philippa. Moreover, Don Diego Columbus, the 
second Admiral, had two sisters, Francisca and Maria, who 
came forward and entered their claims in virtue of collateral 
descent. 

Meanwhile a distant and rather factitious figure arose in 
the person of Bernardo Columbo, of Cogoleto, who declared 
himself to be a natural son of Don Bartholomew. Still 
more remotely and strangely appeared the figure of Baltha- 
zar Colombo, of the ancient house of Cuccaro, the existence 
of which the reader will recall from one of the earlier chap- 
ters of the present work. Balthazar came forward with a 
family scheme, showing that a certain Domenico Colombo, 
who was lord of Cuccaro, was the father of Christopher 
Colombo of great fame. The Cuccaro Colombos were de- 
scended from Domenico ; therefore they were the collateral 
kinsmen of the late Admirals, and they having become ex- 
tinct in their male line their rights had passed to the Italian 
branch. 

Such was the vast and peculiar complication which had 
now to be settled in a judicial inquiry before the Council of 
the Indies. In the first place the decision, which was 
rendered on the 2d of December, 1608, declared the legal 
extinction of the male line of Christopher Columbus. In 
the next place the claims of Balthazar Colombo were under 
indubitable proofs put aside as spurious. In the third place 
the family of Dona Isabella, married as above to Don 
George of Portugal — she being the sister of Don Luis, the 
third Admiral — was selected as the true line of Columbian 
descent. At the time of the decision this family was repre- 
sented by Don Nufio Gelyes de Portugallo, grandson of 



414 COLUMBUS. 

Dona Isabella above referred to, who according to the de- 
cision of the court became Duke of Veragua. The Don 
George of Portugal, grandfather of Don Nuilo, was himself 
one of the collateral princes of the House of Bragan^a, and 
here the political and civil honors, the titles, ranks and privi- 
leges granted aforetime to Christopher Columbus by Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella were made finally to rest. The issue was 
sufificiently strange in the denouement and sufificiently in- 
structive to the student of biography. 



I 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

The first attempt to make a conquest and settlement in 
North America must be credited, if there be credit in it, to 
the most impetuous desperado that probably ever set foot 
upon the New World. The discovery of America naturally 
greatly stimulated the ambition for discovery, and it is not 
to be disregarded, as a matter of no surprise, that the pur- 
pose which actuated Columbus, and which led him by good 
fortune to the shores of a new continent, had a still further 
result, for to the success of his voyages Europe is indebted 
for the discovery of a sea-route to India. Vasco da Gama, 
one of the boldest of Portuguese mariners, was commissioned 
by his sovereign. King Manoel, to make a quest for the 
India described so extravagantly by Marco Polo, and by 
doubling Cape Good Hope he brought his vessel to anchor 
at Calicut, on the Malibar coast, May 20, 1498. He re- 
turned to Lisbon with glorious accounts of the Zamorin 
of India, September, 1499, and made a second voyage to 
India, from which he returned in September, 1503, with ships 
so laden with gold and rich stuffs that all Europe became 
intensely excited and the spirit of discovery was thereby 
fostered to the exclusion of almost every other interest. 
It was the beginning of that fierce rivalry between Spain 
and Portugal for new colonial possessions that raged for a 
century and primarily was the cause of piracy, by which the 
high sea was ravaged for nearly three centuries. 

In her efforts to colonize Cuba, St. Domingo and the 
islands of the Caribbean, Spain sent ships, supplies and men 

415 



4i6 COLUMBUS. 

to several points which appeared favorable for settlements, 
and over those established in Hispaniola (St. Domingo) 
Ovando, one of Columbus' bravest comrades, was appointed 
governor. But Ovando became inimical to the interests of 
Columbus, and at the latter's instigation he was recalled, 
and Diego, the eldest son of Columbus, was appointed in 
his stead. Upon assuming this dignity Diego took the title 
of Viceroy and affected such magnificence as is usually re- 
served for royalty. But he was not content with an august 
and splendid rule on a small island, and scarcely had he 
gained the gubernatorial office when he became ambitious 
to extend his power over new dominions in the name of 
Spain. In pursuance of this desire for greater glory Diego 
organized an expedition of 300 men against Cuba, with the 
view of annexing that large and most beautiful island, and 
gave the command to an adventurous and daring character 
named Diego de Velasquez. Such an enterprise, of course, 
attracted the attention of all the bold spirits that had 
settled in Hispaniola, and among those who sought enlist- 
ment under Velasquez was a youthful scapegrace named 
Hernando Cortez. This remarkable character was a native 
of the little town of Medellin, in Spain, where he was born 
to a captain in the Spanish navy in the year 1485. With a 
disposition remarkable for recklessness, we are not surprised 
that he should be expelled from school, and that he gave 
his father no end of trouble by his wild escapades, in which 
guilty and shameless amours were most frequent. Unable 
to restrain Hernando at home, his father concluded to send 
him to St. Domingo, but on the evening of his intended 
departure the reckless boy, then but seventeen years of age, 
while making an effort to secretly gain the balcony of his 
lady-love's room, lost his hold upon the railing and fell so 
heavih' to the ground below that his life was for a while 
despaired of. Recovering at length, however, he sailed 



ttfi .liiHWit^euoi^iteft J3ii9<j >>, sti^buirq sriJ iio- 



t was 



Etching by Ru8s«ll. 



MARTYRDOM FOR OPINION'S SAKE. 



The earliest settlers of America sought", these shores for an asylum 
against religious persecution, and it is interesting to note that at the time 
Columbus discovered the New World, that was to become a land of freedom, 
a nation founded upon the principle of perfect religious liberty, and of 
universal suffrage and sovereignty, the country whence they came was per- 
secuting with the fires of torture to compel confession and adherence to a 
prescribed faith. Surely, we have traveled since then, and God's blesssing 
have attended us as a nation. 



THE NEW WORLD. 417 

away to the New World and found congenial companionship 
with the bold rovers who had preceded him. 

Hernando spent seven years with his uncle, Ovando, 
governor of St. Domingo, occupying some minor ofificial 
positions, but in this time performing no special service be- 
yond that of messenger to natives living in the interior of 
the island, whose hostility and treachery were such that 
no one but a daring character could be engaged to treat 
with them. 

On account of his bravery and the experience acquired by 
his intercourse with the natives of St. Domingo, Hernando 
was accepted as a valuable acquisition to the expedition 
sent out by Diego Columbus in 151 1, under Velasquez, to 
accomplish the subjugation of Cuba. This most fertile 
island on the globe was discovered by Columbus during his 
first voyage (Oct. 28, 1492), and in honor of Prince John, 
son of Ferdinand and Isabella, was named Juana, but at the 
death of the king the name was changed to Fernandina. 
Some years later it was designated, in honor of Spain's 
patron saint, Santiago, and subsequentl)^ it was called, after 
the holy virgin, Ave Maria. These several names became 
so confusing that it was finally decided to continue the 
designation by which it was known to the natives at the 
time of its discovery, viz., Cuba. At this time the island was 
divided into nine principalities, each preserving its inde- 
pendence, and ruled by as many caciques or chiefs. The 
people are described as living in an easy, voluptuous and 
contented manner, and at peace among themselves because 
they appeared to be indifferent to conditions. They were 
semi-religious ; that is, they appeared to entertain a belief 
in the existence of a supreme being and in the immortality 
of the soul, but they practiced no ceremonies, and employed 
no rites, nor were their beliefs well defined. 

In the several conflicts between the marines who accom- 
27 



4l8 COLUMBUS. 

panied Columbus and the Cubans the latter had exhibited 
little valor, being, as they were, such voluptuaries that they 
accepted any harsh conditions rather than engage their foes, 
whose severities they had more than once felt. The inva- 
sion of Velasquez met with so little opposition that the 
march was not once interrupted, the natives fleeing at the 
sight of the white invaders, leaving their burning villages to 
be plundered at will. Only one cacique offered the slightest 
resistance, and for his appeal to his people to repel the 
white robbers he was taken by Velasquez and given the 
alternative of embracing the Christian religion or being 
burned alive. When told, in reply to his inquiry, that 
many Spaniards were in heaven he accepted the latter, for, 
said he, " I would rather be annihilated by fire than be com- 
pelled to associate even in heaven with such fiends as are 
the Spaniards." With characteristic malignity and merci- 
lessness Velasquez bound the unhappy chief to a stake, and 
heaping fagots about him ordered fire to be applied to the 
pile, and watched with satisfaction the slow consumption, 
and heard with laugh of pleasure the piercing screams of 
his helpless victim. This horror brought the natives to 
make an acknowledgment of perpetual submission to Spain, 
and by this bloody title Cuba has continued to remain a 
possession of that country to this day. 

Having mastered the island, on July 25th, 1 5 1 5, Velasquez 
established a settlement on the south coast, at the mouth 
of the River Mayabeque, and in honor of Columbus called 
the place San Cristobel de la Habana. But the location- 
proving unhealthy the town was removed to the mouth of 
the Rio Almenderes ; but this site being no better than the 
first, the settlement was again transferred in 15 19 to its 
present location, at the entrance of one of the finest harbors 
in the world, and to the new town was given another name, 
Havana, by which it has ever since been known. At nearly 



THE NEW WORLD. 419 

the same time that a settlement was formed at San Cristo- 
bel another was estabHshed on the southeast coast and 
called Santiago, which Velasquez made his capital, while 
still another was made on the south central coast and 
named Trinidad, both of which flourished and developed 
into important ports of commerce, and which they have 
continued to be to this day. 

The acquisition of Cuba was directly followed by the 
appointment of Velasquez as governor, and in recognition 
of his valuable services Cortez was chosen his secretary. 
But the intimate relations between Velasquez and his secre- 
tary were not to remain long undisturbed, for an enmity 
was presently engendered by the infamous conduct of 
Cortez towards one of four sisters, daughters of a rich 
gentleman from Castile, who had come over with hundreds 
of other wealthy families to settle in the fair land of Cuba, 
Velasquez resented the insult, being deeply attached to one 
of the young ladies, and to avenge himself Cortez entered 
into a conspiracy to secure the removal of his chief. He 
was detected, however, and being arrested was tried and 
sentenced to death, but he contrived to break his fetters, 
and forcing his way through a window of the prison sought 
refuge in a church, where, according to the customs of the 
time, he was secure, for the church sanctuary must not be 
violated. After remaining for some days in this place of 
refuge he attempted to escape in the night, but was again 
arrested and taken on shipboard to be sent to St. Domingo, 
with a cord, as the badge of a traitor, about his neck. But 
for a second time he managed to divest himself of his man- 
acles, and slipping out upon the deck plunged into the sea 
and swam ashore and regained the sanctuary of the church. 
Being badly disabled and exhausted, to end his distress he 
offered to marry the girl that he had Avronged, and his pro- 
posal was accepted. This act reinstated him in the good 



420 COLUMBUS. 

opinion and confidence of Velasquez, Avho soon after 
selected him to command an expedition, the results of 
which served to establish his fame for all ages. 

A year before the incident just related, Velasquez had 
dispatched an expedition of three small vessels, and some- 
thing more than lOO men, under the command of Francisco 
Hernandez, to make an exploration among the adjacent 
islands with the view of attaching them to the Spanish 
crown. This expedition sailed as far west as Yucatan, 
which they discovered, and by trading with the natives the 
Spaniards obtained a large number of brightly burnished 
hatchets and other articles which they thought were gold. 
But they were so avaricious that what they were unable to 
secure by barter, they sought to possess by force, which 
precipitated a conflict, in which a greater part of the Span- 
iards were killed. Only about thirty of the original number 
returned, and several of these were so severely wounded 
that they died, among these latter being Hernandez, the 
commander. 

The fate of the expedition was, however, forgotten in the 
wild excitement produced by reports that the land from 
which the remnant of the voyagers returned so abounded 
with gold that the natives used it as the commonest of 
metals. And even after an assay of the burnished hatchets 
had disclosed the fact that they were copper instead of 
gold, the excitement did not seem to abate, for the belief 
continued that somewhere in the interior of the country 
thus discovered there were mines and mountains of tlie 
precious mineral from which the natives procured it in 
great abundance. Acting under this belief Velasquez fitted 
out another expedition of four ships and 240 men, which, 
under the command of Juan de Grijalva, left the port of 
Santiago in April, 15 18. After a sail of eight days they 
reached the shore of Central America, but found the 



THE NEW WORLD. 421 

natives so hostile that it was not deemed prudent to make 
a landing. Continuing along the coast, therefore, the expe- 
dition anchored before a Mexican town, which has since 
been named St. Juan de Uloa, where they were hospitably 
received, and a profitable trade was conducted with the 
people. A considerable quantity of gold was here secured 
in exchange for glass beads, and information was also ob- 
tained of a wondrously rich kingdom and of a magnificent 
capital in the interior, where a mighty ruler known as 
Montezuma lived in unexampled splendor. 

When the expedition under Grijalva returned with its re- 
port and with many specimens of gold in verification of the 
stories concerning wealth of the Mexican kingdom, excite- 
ment was unbounded, not only in Cuba, but also in Spain, 
where the news was transmitted by Velasquez with request 
for assistance in organizing another expedition for the sub- 
jugation of the new country. The help asked for was so 
speedily rendered that in a surprisingly short time a fleet of 
vessels was provided, and Hernando Cortez was appointed 
to the command, but a full complement of men yet remained 
to be obtained. Before preparations were fully completed, 
with the fear that Velasquez might deprive him of the 
honors bestowed, Cortez raised his anchors and sailed away 
from Santiago for Trinidad to procure additional troops. 
Here, by his impassioned appeals to the people, exciting 
both their religious zeal and their cupidity, he succeeded in 
enlisting several hundred cross-bowmen, and besides mus- 
kets and other weapons he obtained several small cannons. 
Having been joined by nearly 200 men in Trinidad, Cortez 
collected a large quantity of military supplies, provided 
padded coats for some and armor for others of his soldiers, 
and set them through a thorough course of drill. Besides 
inspiring his followers with promises of large rewards in the 
land of gold, Cortez intensified their ardor by declaring that 



422 COLUMBUS. 

one of his prime purposes in undertaking the conquest was 
to supplant the idol-worship of the Mexicans with the cross 
of Christianity, and to emphasize this intent in the minds 
of his men, he planted before his tent a banner of black 
velvet embroidered with gold, on which was a gilt sign of 
the cross surrounded with an emblazoned device, " Let us 
follow the cross, for under this sign we shall conquer," 

Just before his departure from Trinidad, Cortez perceived 
two ships with valuable cargoes putting into the harbor, 
which he captured under the pretense that the Lord had 
made him an instrument for spreading the gospel, and that 
as a servant of God he had need for the vessels, which, with 
their cargoes, should be devoted to the Lord's service. Sin- 
gular enough his eloquence was such that he persuaded the 
crews of both vessels, including their owners, to join his 
expedition, after which he sailed to Havana, and there com- 
pleted his preparations for the enterprise which he had so 
auspiciously undertaken. He found his expedition now to 
consist of eleven vessels, most of which, however, were only 
open barks, with one of lOO, and three of seventy tons, but 
into these he embarked no seamen, 553 soldiers, and some- 
thing over 200 Indian men and women who acted as serv- 
ants. On account of the sniallness of his vessels Cortez 
took with him only sixteen horses, but these valuable ani- 
mals had not been brought over from Spain in any consid- 
erable numbers as yet, and were, therefore, difficult to pro- 
cure ; but had he known the important part they were to 
play in his expedition he would have taken a larger number 
at whatever expense or hazard. Formidable weapons were 
also scarce, so that he was able to arm only thirty of his 
men with muskets, and thirty-two with cross-bows, the rest 
having to be content with swords, spears, and a few battle- 
axes. 

Thus poorly provided in an undertaking to subjugate 



THE NEW WORLD. 423 

millions whose power he had no means of knowing, Cortez 
left Havana on the i8th of February, 15 19, for the shores 
of Yucatan. 

After a stormy passage of a week's duration, the expedi- 
tion came in sight of the island of Cozumel, which is a con- 
siderable body of land thirty miles from the shores of Yuca- 
tan. A large number of natives were assembled upon the 
beach, and viewed in terror the sails of the approaching 
squadron. They were horror-stricken at the spectacle, in 
expectation of the Spaniards coming to avenge the murder 
of their comrades under Grijalva whose expedition met with 
such a sorry defeat at their hands. After the squadron had 
made anchor, a large party of Spaniards debarked and en- 
tered one of the native temples in which an idol, decorated 
with gold, was discovered and was seized as lawful prey by 
one of the sub-commanders of the party. Cortez, however, 
rebuked this rash and impolitic act, and not only restored 
the idol to the sanctuary from which it had been ravaged, 
but took every means to assure the natives of his peaceful 
intentions, by which efforts he finally obtained their con- 
fidence and opened a lucrative trafific, which redounded in 
no small benefits to the Spaniards. 

On the 4th of March the squadron departed from the 
island upon which they had had a pleasant stay, and on 
the following day reached the shores of the continent, along 
which he sailed a distance of 200 miles, until he reached 
the mouth of the River Tabasco, before which he anchored 
his ships, and with a well-armed party, in boats, ascended 
the shallow stream. After proceeding several miles he 
attempted a landing at a beautiful place before which 
stretched a wide and inviting meadow. But he was inter- 
cepted by a large party of natives, who, flourishing their 
weapons, shouted words of defiance, and as the day was 
far spent, Cortez prudently decided to wait until morning 



424 COLUMBUS. 

before engaging the hostiles. He accordingly anchored off 
shore, where, for the time, he would be secure, as no canoes 
were near in which the natives might reach his boats. 

When morning broke on the following day, there was 
presented to his startled view an enormous force of savages 
who had been rallying the entire night and now stood in 
battle array, armed with weapons from which the sun 
flashed in blinding brilliancy, and with heads covered with 
plumes that gave them both a wild and martial appearance. 
The blast of trumpets and the roll of drums, mingled with 
shouts from thousands of dark-skinned natives, was quickly 
answered by the firing of the few muskets that Cortcz had, 
and a charge from the entire force of Spaniards. The 
natives were armed principally with bows and arrows, and 
at the first attack the air seemed filled with these missiles. 
But the Spaniards were protected by their helmets and 
shields, so that few casualties resulted to the invaders, and 
a heroic charge soon put the natives to rout, with a loss of 
several hundred. The Indians had believed the thunder of 
the cannons and muskets was produced by supernatural 
powers, and fled from what they were convinced was the 
anger of an enraged god. Only fourteen of the Spaniards 
were wounded, and none of these so seriously but they were 
able to continue the march. On the following day Cortez 
proceeded to Tabasco, which was the capital of a province 
in Central America, of which he took possession without 
meeting any resistance from the natives, all of whom fled in 
dismay upon the approach of the invaders. Cortez' arrival 
in the town was the signal for another gathering of the 
Indians, who sent out couriers in every direction, and in a 
surprisingly short time thousands came flocking to the 
standards of their chiefs to repel their white foes. But 
anticipating an attack, Cortez sent back to his vessels for 
all the arms that were brought over and for every nian th^it 



THE NEW WORLD. 425 

could be spared from the ships, so that he was able to 
marshal a force of more than 500 men, splendidly equipped, 
and six cannons the thunder of which was more terrible to 
the natives than the slaughter which they wrought. 

On the 25th of March the great battle which had been 
anticipated for nearly a week began. The enemy is esti- 
mated to have numbered 40,000 warriors, armed with arrows, 
slings, stones and javelins, against which there were to con- 
tend less than 600 Spaniards, whose lack of number was 
more than compensated by their superior weapons and 
their religious fanaticism, Cortez having been careful to 
arouse their fervor by declaring that God would fight their 
battles for them, and that they were but instruments in His 
hands to extend Christianity in the New World. The 
natives were first to attack with a volley that wounded 
seventy Spaniards, but only one was killed. But the charge 
was heroically met by the invaders, who opened a fire with 
muskets and cannons that tore great gaps in the ranks of 
the Indians, and was followed by a slaughter that has few 
parallels in the history of Mexico. Cortez, at the head of 
his small force of cavalry, had made a detour, and arrived 
unperceived in the rear of the natives, whom he charged 
with such impetuosity that many were trampled beneath 
the hoofs of his horses and hundreds were cut down by the 
broad-swords of his men. But the slaughter and dismay 
caused by the charge were nothing to the terror inspired by 
the sight of the horses, which the natives had never before 
seen. They believed that horse and rider was some strange 
creature, half man, half beast, that devoured as well as 
killed, before which nothing mortal could stand. 

The slaughter had now been so great that 30,000 of the 
natives lay dead upon the field, while but two of the 
Spaniards had been killed outright, and scarcely more than 
^ hundred wounded. Terror-stricken and beaten, a panic 



426 COLUMBUS. 

now seized the Indians, ' and a dreadful rout ensued, in 
which many more were slain. Upon this blood-stained 
field Cortez now reassembled his army, and setting up his 
banner and erecting the cross, prepared to celebrate mass 
in a manner as imposing as the scene immediately before 
had been awful ; the wounds of the Spaniards were then 
dressed with fat stripped from Indians that had been killed, 
and night coming on, peace again brooded over that terri- 
ble field. 

The power of the natives about Yucatan having been 
completely broken, they were ready to sue for peace upon 
any terms, and accepted the conditions which Cortez im- 
posed. They renounced their own religion, embraced 
Catholicism, destroyed their idols, and accepting the priests 
that were offered them, were confirmed in the holy religion 
from which they have not since departed. Before leaving 
Yucatan, Cortez was presented with twenty Indian girls 
whom he distributed as wives among his captains, retaining 
for himself the most beautiful one, whose name was Marina. 
Polygamy was the custom of the country, so that this 
young woman believed her relations to Cortez to be legiti- 
mate, and by her devotion and loyalty soon won his love. 
She was the daughter of a powerful Mexican cacique, but 
her father having died, her mother married again, whose 
affections were estranged from the daughter by the influ- 
ence of a son by her second husband, so that the beautiful 
Marina was finally driven from home, and became a slave 
to a merchant of the country. Thus she acquired the Ian- 
guage of Yucatan, and being familiar also with the Mex- 
ican tongue, proved invaluable in her services to Cortez, 
not only through her devoted loyalty to him but by acting 
as interpreter through a Spaniard who had some years be- 
fore been driven by a storm and wrecked upon the shore of 
Central America, among the natives of which country he 



THE NEW WORLD. 427 

had lived until the landing of Cortez gave him opportunity 
to escape and join the expedition. 

Leaving Tabasco, Cortez continued his voyage up the 
Central American coast, until he arrived before the island 
of San Juan de Uloa, which is at the mouth of one of the 
principal harbors of the Empire of Mexico. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

CORTEZ resumed his voyage up the coast, with gay 
streamers of various colors floating from the masts of his 
vessels, until his squadron dropped anchor in the beautiful 
harbor of Uloa, where he was directly visited by a canoe 
bearing two important chiefs of the natives, acting as an 
embassy from the court of the Emperor of Mexico. The 
Indians were not entirely unacquainted with the Spaniards, 
for they had met the expedition of Grijalva some years 
before, and held a short intercourse with their visitors, 
which so impressed them that when they perceived the 
large squadron now lying at anchor they believed that the 
strangers had come with the purpose of invading and des- 
tro5nng their peaceful homes. The emissaries, therefore, 
came bearing rich presents to Cortez and to pay respectful 
homage, with the hope of averting the disaster which they 
believed was now impending. Cortez received them kindly, 
and gained their confidence through a long interview, con- 
ducted by the aid of Marina and the Spaniard as interpret- 
ers. Having reassured them of his peaceful intentions, 
Cortez obtained the information that 200 miles in the in- 
terior was the capital of the empire, where dwelt a monarch 
named Montezuma, who was beloved by his subjects, and 
whose reign extended over a vast realm. He ascertained 
also that the country was divided into provinces, over each 
of which a governor presided, and that the executive over 
the territory at which he had landed was named Teutile, 

whose residence was some twenty miles distant. 
428 



THE NEW WORLD. 429 

Dismissing his official visitors with some gifts, and re- 
newed assurances of his peaceful intentions, Cortez landed 
his entire force upon the shore, and set immediately about 
constructing a fortified camp, the outer works of which was 
defended by his artillery, so planted as to command the 
immediate surrounding district. In this work the Spaniards 
were assisted by the natives, who brought daily an abun- 
dance of provisions, and in every way manifested their hos- 
pitality and kindness. 

After a week spent in this place, during which time the 
Mexicans and Spaniards mingled freely on intimate terms, 
Governor Teutile, with a numerous retinue, made a visit 
to Cortez, at which demonstrations of friendship were 
exchanged. The cupidity of the Spaniards, however, was 
excited by the rich ornaments of silver and gold of the 
most splendid workmanship which decorated the persons of 
the governor and his staff, and incited them with a stronger 
desire to penetrate the territory where incredible wealth 
was now confidently believed might be had. At the re- 
quest of Cortez, Teutile sent a communication to Mon- 
tezuma, informing him of the arrival of the strangers and 
their desire to visit the Mexican capital. This communica- 
tion was made by picture writing, as the Mexicans made no 
use of letters, which custom was peculiar to all the peoples 
of North America up to the time of the settlement of the 
country by the whites. Mexican painters were also em- 
ployed to make pictures of the Spaniards and of the arms 
which they bore, also of the fleet and the armor, horses and 
general equipment of the expedition, by which means they 
were enabled to convey to Montezuma a very correct idea 
of the arms, character and power of the Spaniards. 

On the eighth day after the transmission of the communi- 
cation to the Emperor, an embassy, consisting of two nobles, 
accompanied by a staff of a hundred men laden with mag- 



430 COLUMBUS. 

nificent gifts from Montezuma, presented themselves before 
Cortez with the Emperor's reply. Among the many pres- 
ents which they bore were articles of silver and gold, 
wrought in such exquisite manner that they vastly sur- 
passed the best workmanship of European artists ; and be- 
sides these, a Spanish helmet, which had been sent to 
Montezuma, was returned filled with nuggets of pure gold. 
Accompanying the presents was the following reply to the 
communication transmitted through Governor Teutile : 
" Our master is happy to send these tokens of his respect 
to the King of Spain. He regrets that he cannot enjoy an 
interview with the Spaniards, but the distance of his capital 
is too great and the perils of the journey too serious to 
allow of this pleasure. The strangers are, therefore, re- 
quested to return to their own homes, with these fruits of 
the friendly feelings of Montezuma." This reply not only 
disappointed but chagrined Cortez, who, though unwilling 
to immediately offend the great emperor, insisted upon a 
renewal of his request for permission to visit the Mexican 
capital ; but the ambassadors assured him that another ap- 
plication would be equally unavailing. However, they ac- 
cepted of a few presents of shirts and ties, and departed 
again on their return to Montezuma, and conveyed this 
second message from the Spanish commander. 

Days passed without any reply from Montezuma, and as 
the natives now began to feel some uneasiness, they acted 
with more reserve, and withheld the supplies of provisions 
which they had before freely given. The weather, too, was 
insufferably hot, and a deadly sickness was soon manifested 
in the camp, from which thirty of the Spaniards died. Some 
of the party were now anxious to return to Cuba, fearing to 
encounter the perils which they must endure on a trip 
through a country of which they knew nothing, and among 
people whose number exceeded the entire population of 



THE NEW WORLD. 431 

Spain. But Cortez was not to thus supinely abandon an 
undertaking which promised both wealth and glory, and by 
impassioned appeals and assurances of success he succeeded 
in exciting anew the ambitions of his comrades, and it was 
determined at length to push on, despite whatever might 
happen, for the Mexican capital. 

At the expiration of ten days, another message was re- 
ceived from Montezuma, more peremptory than the first, 
declaring that the Spaniards would not be permitted to 
approach the capital, and begging that they would depart 
from his shores, lest the friendship which he entertained 
might be turned to hostility. This reply of Montezuma 
inflamed Cortez with passion, which he made no effort to 
conceal, and turning to his soldiers he said : " This is truly 
a rich and powerful prince. His great treasures shall repay 
us well for the hardships which we must encounter. If we 
cannot visit his capital by invitation, we will go as soldiers 
of the Cross." The ambassadors retired with expressions 
of courtesy, but with manifest displeasure at the pertinacity 
of the Spaniards. 

On the following morning, the huts of the Mexicans 
about the place where Cortez had built his fort were aban- 
doned, and not one native reappeared to offer the Spaniards 
food, or to exchange the kindly civilities which had before 
characterized them. When provisions began to grow scarce, 
there was another disaffection among the members of the 
expedition, fully one-half of whom now seemed so deter- 
mined to return to Cuba that Cortez apparently acquiesced, 
but secretly set those who were favorable to marching to 
the capital to cause a mutiny in the camp against the pro- 
posed return. According to a preconcerted arrangement, 
his emissaries surrounded his tent in the evening, and with 
great show of force declared that, having entered upon an 
enterprise of converting the country to Christianity, they 



432 COLUMBUS. 

were determined to persevere in the effort, and that if 
Cortez wished to return with the other cowards to Cuba, 
they would choose another general more valorous, who 
would lead them through paths of glory to the palace of 
the idolaters. This ruse was completely successful, for 
Cortez seized the occasion to make another patriotic ad- 
dress to his followers, which changed their former deter- 
mination and set every one to contemplating the wealth and 
glory which must follow their efforts to win the country to 
Christianity. 

Cortez now established a settlement on the coast at Uloa, 
and assembled a council for the organization of the govern- 
ment. Before the council thus selected, he bowed in ob- 
sequious homage and, in order to obtain a commission from 
the government, surrendered the authority which he had 
received from Velasquez, which had indeed been long be- 
fore revoked ; and in exchange was tendered a commission 
from this body ostensibly representing Charles V. of Spain. 
By this means he was chosen Chief Justice of the colony 
and Captain General of the army, thus shaking off his de- 
pendence upon Velasquez and assuming the dignity of a 
governor responsible only to his sovereign. 

About this time, and while preparations were being made 
for the invasion, five Indians of rank came soliciting an 
interview with the commander. They represented them- 
selves as envoys from a chief of a province not far distant, 
who reigned over a nation called Totonacs, a people who 
had been conquered by Montezuma and annexed to the 
Mexican Empire ; but that they suffered all manner of 
severities and trials under their conqueror, and now sought 
an alliance with the Spaniards with the hope that they with 
their help might regain their independence. Cortez saw 
that this was an opportunity that he could not afford to 
waste, as here lay the means for largely augmenting his 



THE NEW WORLD. 433 

force, and by stirring up civil war he might divide the em- 
pire so as to make its subjugation more easily accompHshed. 
First changing his settlement to a more desirable location 
some forty miles further up the coast, Cortez set himself at 
the head of his army and proceeded on a journey to a city 
twelve miles in the interior, where the cacique resided. 
When he had arrived within three miles of the palace of 
the chief of the Totonacs, he was met by a vast concourse 
of men who brought presents of gold, fruit and flowers, 
and who omitted nothing in a generous exhibition of their 
friendship and desire for an alliance. 

The country through which the Spaniards passed was 
beautiful almost beyond comparison, and the inhabitants 
possessed elements of refinement which might well do 
credit to the most civilized of European nations. The 
town, too, was beautifully laid out and handsomely orna- 
mented with shade trees, and was as clean as the most care- 
fully swept floor. The chief gave a magnificent welcome 
to his visitors, and exhibited such polished manners as led 
Cortez to believe that he had acquired his conduct at some 
magnificent court. After the first greeting, the cacique 
addressed Cortez in these words : " Gracious stranger, I 
cannot sufficiently commend your benevolence, and none 
can stand in more need of it ! You see before you a man 
wearied out with unmerited wrong. I and my people are 
crushed and trodden under foot by the most tyrannical power 
upon earth. We were once an independent and happy peo- 
ple, but the prosperity of the Totonacs is now destroyed ; 
the power of our nobles is gone. We are robbed of the prod- 
uce of our fields ; our sons are torn from us for sacrifices 
and our daughters for slaves ; and now, mighty warrior, we 
implore thy strength and kindness that thou wouldst enable 
us to resist these tyrants, and deliver us from their exac- 
tions." Promising him his assistance, Cortez rode through 
2S 



434 COLU.MBUS. 

the streets of the capital, and through the great court of 
the temple which had been assigned for his accommodation. 
At the head of his column floated gilt-bespangled banners, 
followed by his cavalry of sixteen horses, animals which 
the Totonacs had never before seen, and behind these came 
the artillery, which, in tlie eyes of the natives, were super- 
natural agents, dealing lightning bolts and thunder roars 
at the will of the Spaniards. 

On the following morning, Cortez returned to the point 
selected for the settlement, and was met by another cacique, 
who tendered him the service of 400 men to assist him in 
removing his baggage, or to perform any other labors which 
he might desire. The country was densely populated, and 
Cortez was offered such aid that in a short while a sufificient 
number of huts were erected to house all his people, and a 
flourishing town was brought quickly into existence, the 
first established by whites on the continent of the New 
World. 

Every movement of the Spaniards had been reported to 
Montezuma, who, now perceiving the intention of the 
strangers, saw the necessity of doing something to prevent 
their more thorough establishment in the country. Ac- 
cordingly, he sent five messengers, large and imposing men, 
each of whom carried a bouquet of flowers, followed by 
obsequious attendants. These ambassadors visited the 
settlement with authority from the Emperor to take such 
action against his rebellious subjects as the exigencies of 
the occasion seemed to justify. They commanded that the 
Totonac chiefs appear immediately before them, which, like 
terrified children, they promptly obeyed. At the conclusion 
of the interview, the Totonacs in great fear appealed to 
Cortez, informing him of the indignation of the Emperor 
at their conduct in supporting the Spaniards, and of his 
demand that, as a penalty for their actions, they immedi- 



THE NEW WORLD. 435 

atcly surrender to the five ambassadors twenty young men 
and as many young women of the Totonacs, to be offered 
in sacrifice to their gods. The terror inspired by this demand 
may well be excused, when it is known how these sacrifices 
were obtained and accomplished : At the time of Cortez' 
visit, and long anterior thereto, it was a practice among the 
Aztecs (which word may be used to designate all the peo- 
ples occupying that territory lying between the isthmus of 
Darien and the Rio Grande River) to make sacrifices of 
human beings to their Sun god. These victims were gen- 
erally obtained from the flower of the people, as those thus 
offered up were supposed to be without blemish ; other- 
wise, they would not be acceptable to the deity. The place 
of sacrifice was in the temple court, upon a pyramid spe- 
cially constructed for the purpose. Here the victims were 
laid upon a sacrificial stone, with arms extended and bound 
with iron wristlets and collar. Six priests officiated upon 
these occasions, one of whom plunged the copper knife into 
the breast of the offering, and tearing out the heart, held 
that fresh, palpitating and bleeding organ towards the sun, 
at the same time reciting his orisons and devotions. The 
religion of these people was essentially a bloody one, 
calling so frequently for human sacrifices that it has been 
estimated that no less than fifty thousand victims were re- 
quired every year to placate the Aztec gods. But, in addi- 
tion to these pious offerings, the Aztecs invariably tortured 
their prisoners and celebrated their victories by the bloodi- 
est rites, and not infrequently the bodies were served up and 
eaten at sacrificial banquets with accompaniment of great 
rejoicing. 

When the determination of the ambassadors dispatched 
by Montezuma Avas described to Cortez, he assumed an air 
of bitter indignation, and set earnestly about promoting an 
open rupture between the Totonacs and the Mexicans. Not 



436 COLUMBUS. 

only did he declare that God had commissioned him to 
abolish the abominable practices of these heathens, but he 
commanded the Totonac chiefs to arrest the ambassadors 
and convey them immediately to prison. Having been ac- 
customed to look upon Montezuma as the greatest monarch 
of the earth, whose power none might successfully resist, 
the Totonac chiefs were horrified at the order given them 
by Cortez. But reflecting again upon the surrender of their 
young men and women to be sacrificed for their own rebel- 
lious acts, and feeling themselves now between two fires, 
they accepted the last alternative and, with many misgiv- 
ings, they hurried the ambassadors away to prison. This 
was an act of open rebellion, which they realized was un- 
pardonable, and henceforth they were to be the slaves of 
Cortez, to whose strong arm they could alone look for pro- 
tection. With a perfidy which the most depraved of human 
wretches would scarcely manifest, on the following night 
Cortez secretly released two of the ambassadors, and with 
specious words of friendship sent them back to Monte- 
zuma, with a promise to set the others at liberty at the 
earliest possible moment. The next morning, the other 
three were also set free and were given some presents to 
convey to Montezuma, and bidden specially to report the 
outrage (as he characterized it) which had been committed 
upon them by the Totonacs. Thus, while pretending to be 
the friend of each, Cortez succeeded in his design of setting 
one part of the empire against the other, and fomenting a 
rebellion of which he was to be the chief beneficiary. 

The settlement which Cortez had thus established he 
named Villi Rica de la Vera Cruz, which interpreted means 
The Rich City of the True Cross. Its location was a few 
miles above where the present city of Vera Cruz stands. 
Here he remained for some time, and until he received an- 
other message from the court of Montezuma, which was 



THE NEW WORLD. 437 

couched in very different language from that which had 
previously been transmitted. The Mexican Emperor, be- 
ing deceived by the specious pretensions of Cortez, and 
alarmed as well by the appalling power which he manifested 
and which the Emperor believed must be supernatural, 
adopted a conciliatory policy, and even invited Cortez and 
his soldiers now to visit his capital. The peaceful relations 
which had thus been suddenly established between Cortez 
and Montezuma were kept secret from the Totonacs as far 
as possible, and, appreciating their position towards the 
Emperor, they omitted no opportunity to show their faith 
and reliance in the strangers with whom they had thus 
formed an alliance, and to strengthen this bond the cacique 
made an offering to Cortez of eight of the most beautiful 
maidens that he was able to find in the country, and in urg- 
ing the acceptance of this singular gift begged that they be 
joined in marriage to his officers. This proposition Cortez 
turned to his advantage by a show of gracious condescension 
and a promise to receive them upon the condition that these 
maidens would renounce their idolatry and be baptized into 
the holy Catholic Church, which the Totonacs agreed to, 
and thus were the first converts to Christianity made among 
the people of Mexico. 

Having thus succeeded in his first efforts to convert a few 
of the people by peaceful means, he urged upon the To- 
tonac chiefs an abandonment of their heathenism and a gen- 
eral adoption of the Catholic faith. But this proposition 
they respectfully declined, reminding Cortez of the power 
of their gods, whom they had from time immemorial faith- 
fully worshiped, and declaring that their abandonment 
now would result in the destruction of the entire nation. 
This loyalty to their religion severely provoked Cortez, who, 
unable to appreciate the nobility of these sentiments, attrib- 
uted their inclination to an obstinacy which he was deter- 



.138 COLUAIBUS. 

mined to overcome by force, if persuasion were unavailing. 
Accordingly, on the following day, in a solid column, the 
soldiers marched directly to one of the most magnificent 
temples of the district, and amid the panic created by the 
pageantry that he presented, he ascended with fifty of his 
men up the winding stairway of the pyramid within the 
temple's court, and with violent hands hurled down the 
massive wooden idols, which broke in fragments as they 
struck the streets. Gathering up the remains, he placed 
them in a pile and applied the torch, by which they were 
speedily consumed. Appalled by this violence, and realiz- 
ing their own helplessness, the Totonac chiefs docilely ac- 
quiesced in all the demands made upon them by the in- 
vaders. Cortez then ordered that the Totonacs be dressed in 
the sacerdotal robes of the Catholic priesthood ; and placing 
lighted candles in their hands, he forced them to participate 
in the rites of the Papal Church. Upon the apex of the 
pyramid, where human sacrifices had been offered upon 
more than a hundred occasions, Cortez erected an altar, be- 
fore which mass was solemnly performed. And there, on 
that bloody spot, the psalmody of the Catholic priests as- 
cended in the air, the first offering made to the true God 
from a country in which, aside from its religion, there was 
a splendid civilization. This incident so affected the minds 
of the natives that many wept, and the whole nation di- 
rectly accepted the Christian religion, perceiving its superi- 
ority to the brutalities of their own. 

Thus far there had been no serious obstacles to the prog- 
ress of the purpose of Cortez. But about this time, for 
some unexplained cause, there was another disaffection 
among his soldiers, a party of whom had secretly seized one 
of the brigantines with the intention of escaping back to 
Cuba. At the last moment, however, one of the conspira- 
tors disclosed the intention of his comrades, and Cortez, at 



THE NEW WORLD. 439 

all times fearful of the results of his assumption of the 
gubernatorial position, as already described, determined to 
make an example of the conspirators. He accordingly 
ordered all the mutineers to be brought upon shore, where, 
after a brief trial, the two ringleaders were condemned to 
be beheaded. The pilot was committed to the more brutal 
penalty of having his feet cut off, while two others of the 
foremost sailors received 200 lashes, from the effects of 
which they did not recover for several months. But, not 
entirely satisfied with the results of his harsh measures, to 
prevent the destruction of his disaffected followers, Cortcz 
adopted a desperate expedient : He was now upon an un- 
known shore, in the midst of millions of people, the most 
of whom were loyally attached to their emperor, and who 
by combination might easily accomplish his destruction. 
But, dismissing all danger, in his blind ambition Cortez or- 
dered all the vessels of his fleet dismantled, and after every 
movable thing had been placed on shore, the ships were 
scuttled and sunk. At this bold act the soldiers were struck 
with consternation, for they perceived how hopeless was their 
expectation of ever again returning to their friends unless 
Providence protected them in all the perilous marches which 
lay before them, and which the majority of the company 
contemplated with feelings of despair. But their destiny 
lay entirely in the hands of their leader, whom it were no 
avail now to oppose, and their feelings of insubordination 
gave place to a blind obedience, which was directly aroused 
to enthusiasm and devotion by a thrilling speech which 
Cortez delivered to pacify his men. 

On the 15th of August, 15 19, Cortez had so far completed 
his preparation for the great march to the interior that he 
brought up his little army in reviev/, and after putting them 
through many military evolutions, addressing them again 
in the most impassioned manner, appealing alike to their 



440 COLUMBUS. 

cupidity and religious zeal, he marched out of the town 
where he had formed a flourishing settlement, and set his 
face towards the capital of Mexico. His force consisted of 
400 Spaniards, armed as already described, fifteen cavalry- 
men, and seven pieces of artillery. The rest of his party he 
left at the garrison at Vera Cruz, many of whom were sick 
or disabled, and the others were required for the defense of 
the place. But the cacique of the Totonacs furnished 
him with 2,300 men, a majority of whom, however, went as 
porters to the expedition, to carry burdens and to draw the 
artillery. At the head of this considerable force, Cortez set 
out upon a career of cruelty and bloodshed positively un- 
paralleled in American history, as we shall see. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Flaming meads and waving meadows stretched away al- 
most as far as the eye could reach on either side of the road 
over which Cortez marched his troops towards the magnifi- 
cent capital of the Mexicans. At brief intervals Indian 
villages were passed, out of which came the wondering 
population stricken with amazement at the military proces- 
sion as it sped swiftly by. On elevated sites, commanding 
lovely prospects, might be seen beautiful villas of rich 
natives, which betrayed the marvelous wealth and unex- 
ampled productiveness of the country. It was not until 
the fourth day that they reached the mountain slopes of 
the Cordilleras, at the foot of which they entered a large 
and populous town, called Naulinco, which was distinguished 
not only for its numerous population, but also for its 
many massive temples, upon whose altars sacrifices of human 
bodies were made many times every year. At sight of these 
the indignation of Cortez was again aroused, and he would 
have proceeded to demolish both the idols and the temples 
but for the restraint that lack of time put upon him. He 
was, therefore, content to erect in the broad plaza of the 
place a giant cross, as a memorial of his visit. 

The route now lay up the mountain side, and it was not 
until the third day, over rugged paths and assailed by fierce 
storms of wind, that they reached a table-land seven thousand 
feet above the sea. But at this elevation they found the 
country as luxuriant with fields of maize, and as populous 

441 



442 COLU.MBUS. 

with towns and villages as the level lands over which they 
had before passed. On the westward side of this table-land 
was located the city of Tlatlanquitepec, the architecture of 
which was vastly more imposing than that of any place the 
Spaniards had seen. The houses were nearly all built of 
stone, much of which was exquisitely carved and of rocks 
of extraordinary size. But more wonderful than these 
structures were thirteen enormous temples which attested 
the religious fervor of the people. While the sight of 
these buildings excited wonder and amazement, the Span- 
iards were appalled by the spectacle of one hundred 
thousand human skulls, piled up in the form of a pyramid, 
and exhibited as an evidence of the devotion of the citizens 
to their gods. 

The people of the city received Cortez with cold formality 
and endeavored to persuade him against visiting the Mexi- 
can capital. But he was not to be thus deterred from his 
purpose, and would have desecrated the temples and des- 
troyed the idols of those debased people, as he had done 
before, had not a priest, a prudent father, named Olmedo, 
who accompanied him, showed the rashness of such a 
course. 

After a rest of five days in Tlatlanquitepec, the march 
was resumed over a beautiful roadway that ran along a 
transparent stream of water and an unbroken line of Indian 
villages. Fifty miles further brought them to the city of 
Xalacingo, which was on the frontier of a very powerful 
nation, called the Tlascalans, who were not only numerous 
but so warlike that they had successfully resisted every 
attempt of the Mexican Emperor at their subjugation. 
Every man among them was a warrior, holding himself in 
readiness for service at any instant, and bloody battles were 
of constant occurrence between them and the Mexicans, 
by which they had been able to maintain their independence. 



THE NEW WORLD. 443 

Appreciating the importance of an alliance with such a 
valorous people, Cortez rested several days at Xalacingo, 
and sent an embassy of Totonacs with a courteous message 
to the chief of the nation, soliciting permission to pass 
through his country. Contrary to his expectation, the em- 
bassy was not a success, for having had information of 
the landing of the Spaniards, who were represented as being 
armed with thunder and clad with wings, and been informed 
of the desecration of the temples and the destruction of the 
gods wherever they went, the Tlascalans seized the ambas- 
sadors and were determined to sacrifice them to their gods. 
But by some means, which history does not explain, the 
four ambassadors contrived to make their escape, came back 
with all speed to the camp of the Spaniards, and made re- 
port of the cruel manner in which they had been received. 
A less bold man than Cortez would have hesitated to at- 
tempt a passage through the country with so small a force 
in the face of such a number of powerful warriors as the 
Tlascalans were able to muster. But he seems never to 
have been moved by any feelings of fear, but rather by a 
consuming ambition which did not allow him to hesitate 
before any obstacle. Lifting high the standard of the Holy 
Cross, Cortez, again appealing to his soldiers in the name of 
God, resumed his march towards the country which he had 
been forbidden to enter. 

A few miles brought them in view of a solid wall of ma- 
sonry, extending to the right and left, through valleys and 
over hills, until lost to view. It was constructed of immense 
blocks of stone with a base fully twelve feet in thickness, 
narrowing at the top to half that breadth, and strengthened 
at intervals with castellated parapets, in which respect it 
bore a striking resemblance to the great Chinese wall, and 
that it was built for a like purpose was evident. To the grate- 
ful surprise of the Spaniards they found the main gate 



444 COLUMBUS. 

undefended, nor did their approach seem to have been 
heralded ; for no Indians were to be seen until an entrance 
had been secured, and the march continued towards the city. 
Suddenly, from behind the hills and out of the woods dashed 
a large force of Indians, who attacked the Spaniards with 
the greatest fury, and succeeded in killing two of the cavalry 
horses and wounding several of the invaders before Cortez 
really comprehended his danger. For the moment the 
Spaniards were thrown into dismay, so splendid had been 
the discipline and military tactics of the Indians. But his 
somewhat distracted force was directly rallied by Cortez, 
who quickly ordered the artillery brought into position, and 
opening fire, a terrible storm of grape-shot went tearing 
through the ranks of the Indians, dealing such dreadful car- 
nage that they were instantly thrown into confusion and re- 
treated, leaving six thousand of their dead upon the field. 
This decisive defeat of the Tlascalans resulted to the very 
great advantage of Cortez, for from their ranks he recruited 
nearly a thousand warriors, and the whole nation promptly 
acknowledged their fealty to the conqueror. 

But, though Cortez subjugated the people about Xala- 
cingo, he was yet to encounter other bodies of these people, 
who were to offer him an obstinate resistance. The recruits 
which he obtained were therefore carefully drilled, and the 
Totonac allies were also made effective by a discipline 
which readily made them available as soldiers. Cortez rec- 
ognized the necessity of having every man under him, 
whether porter or servant, sailor or soldier, ready for service 
in case necessity called. Occasion soon arose to justify and 
commend this wise precaution. A five days' march after 
his battle with the Tlascalans brought him to a lovely 
valley, where to his astonished gaze he saw the enemy 
drawn up in battle array, and in such numbers that their 
boundary on either side could not be perceived. 



THE NEW WORLD. 445 

It was not until late in the afternoon that Cortez stretched 
his tent and posted sentinels to watch the foe, feeling cer- 
tain that on the following morning he would be required 
to give battle to an enemy whose strength he was unable 
to estimate. Two of the chiefs whom he had captured at 
the first battle informed Cortez that the foe before him 
consisted of five divisions of ten thousand men, and that 
each division was under the command of a chief, and des- 
ignated by a distinct uniform and banner. With the hope 
of averting a dreadful calamity, Cortez sent his captive 
chiefs with a conciliatory message to the enemy, asking per- 
mission to pass unmolested through their country and de- 
claring that he had no designs against the Tlascalans. But 
to this a fierce reply was returned, to the effect that they 
would not only resist his passage through the country, but 
that if he attempted it they would ofTer the hearts of the 
Spaniards as a sacrifice to their gods and then devour the 
bodies, according to the custom with which they treated 
all their prisoners. It was a supreme moment for the 
Spaniards, and fear of the result caused a solemn feeling to 
brood over the camp, and in the night, during the still 
watches, the voice of prayer arose from every tent, for God 
alone seemed able to deliver them from their desperate 
situation. Cortez nevertheless at no time exhibited any 
alarm, but went about among his troops encouraging them 
by every means he was able to put forth, and prophesying 
the certain defeat of the Indians, whose power, he declared, 
would be speedily dissipated by the arm of the Almighty. 

At an early hour, on the 5th of September, the blare of 
bugles aroused the sleepless camp, and the order was given 
to prepare for action. Even the wounded men that were 
barely able to stand in rank with assistance were compelled 
to do such duty as they were capable of performing, while 
the recruits from the two Indian nations were stationed in 



446 COLUMBUS. 

the center, supported on either wing by the Spaniards, 
and the cavahy was s^^nt forward to bring on the battle. 
As the sun rose over the Cordilleras a magnificent view 
was presented : stretching away across the valley from hill 
to hill, and covering a plain fully six miles square, was the 
vast army of the TIascalans, sturdily awaiting the moment 
for the conflict. The native warriors were gorgeously dec- 
orated with feathers and paint and other appliances of 
barbaric pomp, and as they were separated in divisions, 
Cortez was now able to form a correct estimate of their 
number, which he declares was fully one hundred thousand. 
Their weapons were slings, arrows, javelins, clubs and 
wooden swords, while flints were imbedded in their wooden 
weapons, which made them extremely effective in close 
combat. Scarcely had Cortez put his troops in motion 
towards the v'alley when a vast field of natives began to 
move with celerit\', but military precision, towards their ad- 
vancing foe, and in a few moments the attack was begun 
by such a discharge of arrows and darts from the TIas- 
calans as to fairly becloud the sky. The armor worn by 
the Spaniards was scarcely a sufficient protection against 
such a hail of weapons, and many fell sorely wounded. 
But employing tactics which had served him so efficaciously 
in his first battle, Cortez brought up his pieces of artillery 
and opened a fire of ball and grape-shot upon the astonished 
natives, which slaughtered them in astonishing numbers at 
each discharge. But so desperate was their courage that 
the TIascalans, while betraying amazement, rushed in and 
filled up the gaps made by the cannons, and regardless of 
the rain of death that was now mowing down thousands 
every moment, they continued valorously the unequal fight. 
On every side the dead lay piled up in ghastly confusion, 
while of the Spaniards every horse was wounded and seventy 
of the men were severely injured, and nearly every one had 



THE NEW WORLD. 447 

been struck by some of the flying missiles. The chief of the 
Tlascalans, at last seeing how futile it was to contend any 
longer with an enemy which he now believed was fighting 
by the aid of supernatural weapons, sounded the retreat. 
But in retiring, the same discipline that had distinguished 
their advance characterized the present movements of the 
natives, who left the Spaniards with little more glory than 
the mere satisfaction of having routed their enemies, for 
exhausted with the long and severe fighting, and maimed, 
wounded and discouraged, the victors sought repose upon 
the grass, too nearly depleted of physical strength and 
ambition to erect tents for their protection. During the 
day a storm arose, and the temperature fell so low that the 
sufferings from cold were even greater than from the wounds 
that the soldiers had received. The previous night they 
had slept little or none through fear of the results of the 
following day, and the weather was now so inclement that 
they were unable to obtain the rest and refreshment which 
they so sorely needed. To discouragement a mutinous 
feeling succeeded, and the expedition was again upon the 
point of disbandment through the open threats of more 
than half the number to abandon a course which seemed so 
hopeless, and which must, if persisted in, bring irreparable 
calamity upon the whole. 

Our surprise is exceedingly great when reading the re- 
ports furnished by Cortez, and a comrade named Diaz, who 
seems to have been historiographer of the expedition, to 
learn that in this bloody contest, in which it is said thirty 
thousand of the enemy were slain, only one Spaniard was 
killed upon the field of battle, and that all their sufferings 
arose from wounds which in every case healed, so there was 
no substantial loss in the fighting force which Cortez had- 
marshaled. 

Again the influence of Cortez was exerted to quiet the 



448 COLUMBUS. 

fears and mutinous spirit of his follov.-ers, and his success in 
this effort was as signal as it had been on many previous 
occasions ; for when he was unable to arouse them by as- 
surances of the glory that they would obtain, as well as the 
wealth which awaited the expedition at its conclusion, he 
had the unfailing resource of appealing to their religious 
zeal, which in every instance brought such immediate 
change that from depression the most mutinous rallied 
again to his standard with assurances of their renewed devo- 
tion. On the day succeeding the battle, Cortez armed some 
of his soldiers suf^ciently to make a foray among the neigh- 
boring villages, which he despoiled and burned, taking also 
400 prisoners, about one-half of whom were women. He 
then pitched his tents and gave his soldiers an opportunity 
for the rest which they had not had since leaving Xalacingo. 
But on the second day he was surprised by an army very 
much larger than that with which he had contended in the 
unfortunate valley, and which, he declares, exceeded 150,000 
in numbers. This enormous force had been collected 
through the extraordinary exertions of neighboring caciques, 
who brought their legions from every direction, and ap- 
peared in front of Cortez without any intimation having 
preceded them of their intention. Almost as quickly as 
they came in sight this immense army made a fierce charge, 
and descended upon the Spaniards in such awful might that 
Cortez was completely overwhelmed. Everything for a 
while was in inextricable confusion, the natives and the 
Spaniards grappling in a deadly contest which would have 
meant annihilation to the Spaniards had not the artillery 
been brought promptly into action, and its thunders in- 
spired the natives with a new terror. For four hours this 
desperate battle continued, at the end of which time, to 
the surprise of Cortez himself, so many thousands of the 
natives had been slain that the rest drew off in hopeless 



NEW WORLD. 449 



to 



Jifol in pezzi 
—-selves : 



-y 



450 COLUMBUS. 

they were met by an enthusiastic multitude, who came out 
to greet them with barbaric music, precedini^ native war- 
riors gayly decorated with variegated plumes and clothed 
in the splendors of half civilization. Among the other sur- 
prises which awaited Cortez was the splendid police regula- 
tion of the city and the many luxuries which the people 
enjoyed ; for here he found barber-shops, and baths with 
hot and cold water, broad plazas in which native bands of 
musicians discoursed every evening, flowing fountains, and 
seemingly all the accessories of a highly refined people. 
On the way, however, fifty-five of the Spaniards had died 
of wounds received in the latter engagement, while the 
most of his army was so fatigued that palanquins had to be 
provided to convey them. Those that were wounded had 
also received small attention, as the injuries could only be 
dressed with the fat cut from the dead bodies of the natives, 
the result of which treatment Cortez unfortunately neglects 
to record. But upon reaching Tlascala every comfort was 
immediately provided, not only for the care of the sick but 
for the perfect rest of the fatigued, while provisions were in 
such abundance that the army forgot their troubles in the 
luxurious entertainment which they now received. It is 
estimated by Cortez that at least thirty thousand people 
appeared daily in the market place of the city, and that 
the population of the province which he had invaded num- 
bered not less than 500,000. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

Grand and imposing was the entrance of Cortez into 
Tlascala, while so magnificently hospitable was his enter- 
tainment that opportunity was offered, not only for ac- 
quainting himself with the resources of the empire, but for 
persuading the Tlascalans to join him in the enterprise of 
overthrowing Montezuma. So well did he succeed that the 
entire fighting force of the province was placed at his dis- 
posal, and preparations were begun on a gigantic scale for 
the invasion. In the meantime, however, Montezuma had 
been made acquainted with the result of Cortez' conquests, 
and his fears being excited that the gods were in some 
mysterious way working to accomplish his ruin, with the 
hope of averting such fate the Emperor sent an embassy of 
five noblemen, accompanied by a retinue of 200 prominent 
men of the empire, to visit the Spanish conqueror ; nor did 
he forget to send with them such valuable presents that the 
gold which they brought is alone estimated to have been 
equal in value to $50,000. Accompanying the presents 
was a message couched in the most respectful language, 
beseeching him not to invade the empire and pledging the 
assistance of the Emperor in any undertaking which Cortez 
might have in mind that did no violence to his own terri- 
tory. Surprised and angered at this sudden change in the 
disposition of Montezuma, whose invitation to visit the 
capital had only a few weeks before been extended to him, 
Cortez returned a reply full of courtesy, but declaring his 
intention nevertheless to visit the Mexican capital in obe- 

451 



452 COLUMBUS. 

dience to his sovereign's order, and intimating that lie 
should do so regardless of the wishes of the Emperor, even 
to the extent of employing force and laying waste the 
country. 

Before departing from Tlascala, Cortez had carried his 
crusade against idol worship and the cruel practices of the 
natives so far that he prevailed upon his new allies to dis- 
charge the prisoners whom they had in the temples fatten- 
ing for the next sacrifice ; and he also obtained from them 
a promise to discontinue such heathen practices thereafter, 
a promise, however, which was no longer kept than the stay 
of Cortez in their capital continued, for almost immediately 
upon his departure the old orgies and bloody rites were re- 
instituted, and their altars flowed with the blood of the 
offerings of hundreds of victims almost before the sound of 
the tramp of the vanishing Spaniards had died away. 

But Cortez nevertheless left some of the seeds of the 
Church, by receiving into baptism five beautiful maidens 
who had been offered to him by the chief of the province, 
as wives for his soldiers. These, having been first formally 
baptized and received by the Church, were left with one 
priest to propagate the faith in Tlascala, while Cortez at 
the head of an immense army continued his journey towards 
the Mexican capital. About this time also Cortez received 
a second embassy, with even richer presents than those 
which the first had carried, and these, making the most 
abject obeisance to the white conqueror, presented their 
gifts, together with a message assuring Cortez of the Em- 
peror's high consideration and regard, and in the hope of 
winning his friendship as well as averting the fate which he 
believed was impending, he renewed his invitation to Cortez 
to visit his capital and promised him an enthusiastic and 
friendly welcome. But he besought him to form no alli- 
ance with the Tlascalans, whom he designated as the most 



THE NEW WORLD. 453 

fierce and unrelenting foes of his empire, and whose natures 
were so treacherous that they might not be depended upon 
even in the face of the strongest protestations of fidehty. 
But Cortez no longer regarded the messages from Monte- 
zuma, having now a sufficient force to easily make his way 
against any resistance that the Emperor was able to offer. 

Indeed, the Tlascalans flocked to his standard in such 
numbers that Cortez declares he might easily have enlisted 
100,000 volunteers. But instead of taking soldiers from 
among these indiscriminately, he accepted but 6,000 select 
troops, with which large re-enforcement he now set out, 
with banners streaming, trumpets sounding, and his enthu- 
siastic soldiers shouting, for the great Mexican capital. 

The great city of Cholula, having a population of 100,000 
souls, was only eighteen miles from Tlascala. But it was 
situated in the Mexican Empire, and the bitterest animosi- 
ties then prevailed between its inhabitants and the Tlasca- 
lans. Cortez was, therefore, warned against treachery in 
case he made an entrance into this city. But, regarding 
these alarms merely as the fears of an excited people, he 
continued on to this great metropolis, and when in sight of 
its gates a delegation came out to receive him and to pay 
their respectful homage. But though they welcomed him 
with smoking censers, waving banners and bands of music, 
the people of Cholula declined to admit their enemies 
within the city walls, and to avoid giving offense before he 
had been able to ascertain what were the defensive forces 
of the city, Cortez ordered his Tlascalan allies to camp out- 
side the walls. It was a city, not only of extraordinary 
proportions, but distinguished for its handsome streets and 
magnificent dwellings, while here and there the most splen 
did temples rose in grandeur from the city's squares, and 
there was every indication of extraordinary wealth and the 
rewards of successful industry. 



454 COLUMBUS. . 

Wliile viewing the grandeur of the place, Cortez had not 
failed to note several suspicious movements, which his 
quick comprehension taught him to believe denoted that 
some treachery was in contemplation. To re-enforce this 
belief, two Tlascalans, who had been acting as spies, having 
entered the city in disguise, reported to him that six chil- 
dren had just been sacrificed in the chief temple, as an 
offering to the god of war and as an imploration for the 
destruction of the Spanish invaders. This information did 
not serve to considerably increase the fears of Cortez, half- 
believing that it might be prompted by the sincere desire 
of the Tlascalans to embroil Cortez with their inveterate 
enemies. But the facts as they disclosed them were pres- 
ently confirmed by testimony furnished by Marina, the 
faithful native wife of Cortez. This woman had by some 
means obtained the confidence of a wife of one of the 
Cholulan nobles, who, to save Marina, had disclosed to her 
a plot then in progress designed to accomplish tlie ruin of 
the Spaniards. She told how deep graves had been dug in 
the streets and concealed, \vhich were intended to serve as 
pitfalls for the Spanish cavalry, and that stones had been 
carried to the tops of the houses and temples to be hurled 
at the proper moment upon the heads of the invaders, as 
they marched through the streets. To counteract this 
treachery, and to bring punishment upon the inhospitable 
people, Cortez conceived a horrible project : He gave orders 
to quietly assemble all the Spaniards and Totonacs, at a 
given moment, in the chief market place of the city, and to 
come prepared for a desperate measure. At the same time 
he ordered the Tlascalans to approach at a given signal, 
and when he should signify, they were to rush in and fall 
upon the Cholulans, whom they were to strike down and 
massacre without mercy. He next sent a friendly message 
to the cliicf men of the city and nobles, requesting their 



THE NEW WORLD. 455 

immediate presence at a public place in the city, and when 
these responded, an order for the slaughter was given. 
Taken completely by surprise, the Cholulans could offer no 
resistance, while the Tlascalans, finding this their oppor- 
tunity for a savage vengeance upon their implacable ene- 
mies, swept through the streets like devouring wolves, and 
instituted a carnival of blood more terrible than that which 
drenched the streets of Paris during the slaughter of the 
Huguenots. They were no respecters of persons : children, 
women, old age, alike fell before the merciless hand of 
slaughter, and when the carnage ceased the pillage began. 
For two days this riot of murder, plunder and burning 
continued, until at last the city presented the sad spectacle 
of nothing but smouldering ruins, while the streets were 
filled with mutilated carcasses polluting the air. Six thou- 
sand persons were thus massacred, the other inhabitants 
fortunately escaping to the hills and avoiding pursuit. A 
proclamation of amnesty was now issued to the fugitives, 
who were induced to return to the ruins from which they 
had fortunately escaped ; and, as some amends for the ruth- 
less desecration and spoliation that he had wrought, Cortez 
set about erecting other buildings and restoring order, so 
as to make the place again habitable. The idols had all 
been broken up and the temples defaced, so that Cortez 
thought now was a suitable time to institute the Christian 
religion. Accordingly, he set up in several places crosses 
and images of the Virgin, and ordered public thanksgivings 
to God for having purified the temples of the heathen, and 
for the establishment of the holy religion in the places built 
by idolaters. 

Some idea of the extraordinary size of the temples which 
were built in Cholula may be formed by a statement made 
by the Hon. Widdy Thompson, who visited the place where 
once the city of Cholula stood, in 1842. He says that not 



456 COLUMBUS. 

a single vestige of that great city remains except the ruins 
of the principal pyramid or temple, which still stands in 
solitary and gloomy grandeur in the vast plain which sur- 
rounds it. Its dimensions at the base are 1,440 feet, its 
present height 177 feet, while the area on the summit is 
something more than 45,210 square feet, or a little more 
than 212 feet square. A Catholic chapel now crowns the 
summit of this enormous mound, the sides of which are 
covered with grass and trees. 

The terrible massacre of the inhabitants of Cholula was 
a great advantage to Cortez, for the news spread rapidly to 
all the other cities of Mexico, and so appalled the people 
that from every point came messages of humble submission, 
accompanied by rich presents and offerings, as a propitiation 
to secure the favor of the Spaniards. Montezuma, when 
he heard of the thunder and lightning of Cortez' artillery, 
aided by cavalry horses, destroying thousands in the streets 
of Cholula, and that they had even put to flight the vast 
armies of Tlascalans, trembled with fright, and, retiring to 
his secret chamber, spent a week in consultation with his 
priests, and in petitionings to his gods for protection against 
the ruthless invaders. But the gods of Montezuma had 
deserted him, as they had the Totonacs, the Tlascalans 
and the Cholulans, and Montezuma read his fate as plainly 
as Belshazzar perceived the handwriting on the falling walls 
of Babylon. 

The success of Cortez had also drawn to him many dis- 
affected parties from other provinces who had real or im- 
agined grievances against Montezuma, and who, while 
seeking to avenge their wrongs, sought to protect them- 
selves by joining the standard of the invader. Thus Cortez 
found his force continually increasing, until it became so 
iniwieldy that further accessions to his ranks were refused. 
From less than 500 in the beginning his force had aug- 



THE NEW WORLD. 457 

mented until it now numbered nearly 20,000, and it might 
have easily been recruited to ten times as many without 
effort on his part. The most of these, however, were hardly 
available in battle, except as they might be used to draw 
the fire of the enemy and act as a barrier for his own men. 
With this vast army Cortez left the ruined city of Cholula 
and marched towards Mexico, which lay less than seventy 
miles towards the east. 

The country through which he advanced was luxuriant 
and immensely populous ; provisions were everywhere 
abundant ; the water was clear and wholesome, and the 
journey being without annoyances was pleasant in the ex- 
treme. There were on every side rivers, orchards, lakes, 
beautiful villages, highly cultivated fields, splendid villas, 
and a tropical growth of flowers and vegetation positively 
amazing. Through this Edenic country Cortez continued 
his journey with short advances, being in no anxiety to 
reach the end of what was proving only a delightful excur- 
sion. 

It was not until seven days after leaving Cholula that the 
Spaniards gained the heights of Ithualco, from which a 
majestic and splendid view of Mexico was obtained. Under 
the spell of the landscape that spread out in picturesque 
panorama below him, Cortez stood in pious contemplation 
of how God had protected and aided him in carrying the 
banners of Spain and of the cross over such a stretch of 
productive country, to be planted in the heart of the richest 
heathen nation of the world. As the verdant landscape 
stretched away into the distance, there were outlined 
against the sky mountain peaks and the snow-covered vol- 
canoes of Pococatapetl and Iztaccihuatl, rising in grandeur 
and overtopping the great city of Mexico, which lay in 
queenly splendor upon islands in the bosom of Lake Tez- 
cuco, more than five hundred miles in circumference. On 



458 COLUMBUS. 

the margin of the lake were suburbs of the capital, with 
lofty temples, snow-white dwellings, from which long cause- 
ways led to the main city that was surrounded by the lake. 
There were everywhere the indications of a refinement 
fully equal, if not superior, to that found anywhere in 
Europe. The architecture would rival that of the Moors, 
who introduced into Spain a style which has never since 
been abandoned. There were bridges, and buildings, and 
tunnels that exhibited the most splendid engineering skill ; 
factories that provided the most costly fabrics ; plantations 
that were most perfectly cultivated, and machinery of 
various kinds that manifested the progressive spirit of the 
people. Before these sights the boldness of the Spaniards 
recoiled, considering how few they were in number and in 
the center of a hostile country where so many hundreds of 
thousands of bold warriors might be mustered upon a call 
from the Emperor, and how easily destruction might be 
brought upon them if their allies should be weaned from 
the loyalty which they professed. But Cortez exhibited 
the most striking self-assurance, reposing a perfect reliance 
in the destructive power of gunpowder and the protection 
which the sacred banner of the cross afforded. 

Though Cortez was in sight of Mexico, he was yet some 
considerable distance from the city, and it was necessary to 
pass through several large towns which lay in the Mexican 
valley. He accordingly marched through the cities of 
Amaquemecan and Ayotzingo, which, Venetian-like, was 
built in Lake Chalco, and Cuitlahuac, which was also in the 
lake, where many floating gardens were constructed that 
moved about like beds of roses driven by the wind ; and 
thence on to Iztapalapan, which latter place was near the 
city of Mexico, and was remarkable for a gigantic stone 
reservoir which had been built of such ample dimensions 
that it held sufificient water to irrigate the grounds over a 



THE NEW WORLD. 459 

district many miles in extent. It also possessed an aviary 
filled with birds of the most gorgeous plumage and of 
sweetest song. Here Cortez halted for a day, and was most 
hospitably entertained by the people, who were in constant 
dread lest he should violate their beautiful homes and put 
them to the sword. 

On the following day, which was the 8th of November, 
15 19, Cortez proceeded on his journey to Mexico, and when 
within two miles of the outskirts of the city, he was met 
by a procession of a thousand of the principal inhabitants, 
each of whom was provided with a waving plume and clad 
in the most exquisitely embroidered mantle. They came 
to announce the approach of their beloved Emperor, who 
desired to personally welcome the strangers to his chief 
city. This procession met Cortez as he approached the 
principal causeway leading from the mainland to the island 
city. It was nearly two miles in length, substantially built, 
and wide enough to admit of a dozen horsemen riding 
abreast. On either side the lake was covered with gondolas 
and boats of various shapes, all laden with interested spec- 
tators, while further down the long avenue was seen ap- 
proaching the glittering train of the Emperor, that reflected 
the sunlight back in dazzling splendor from the tinsel dec- 
orations of his retinue. Montezuma was himself seated in 
a gorgeous palanquin trimmed with gold, and borne on the 
shoulders of four noblemen, while from the top spread out 
six gigantic plumes of various colors. Immediately before 
the palanquin three officers walked, each holding a golden 
mace, while over his head four attendants carried a canopy 
of skillful workmanship, gorgeously embelished with green 
feathers, gold and precious gems, that sheltered him from 
the sun. The Emperor wore upon his head a crown of 
gold, which, being open at the top, permitted a beautiful 
head-dress of plumes to project. Over his shoulders he 



460 COLUMBUS. 

carried a mantle that was embroidered with costly orna- 
ments, and was brought together in front v/ith a rosette 
composed entirely of jewels. Buskins fastened with gold 
lace work were worn upon his feet and legs, while the soles 
of his sandals were of pure gold. His features were pecul- 
iarly handsome, but he was of an effeminate appearance, 
evidently unused to public appearance and seldom exposed 
to the sun. 

As the Emperor drew near, Cortez dismounted from his 
horse, as Montezuma alighted from his palanquin, and they 
proceeded towards each other. Montezuma was supported 
by two of the highest dignitaries of his court, and other at- 
tendants spread before him rich carpets, that his sacred feet 
might not be profaned by contact with the ground. He 
showed in his face the deep anxiety and melancholy which 
had depressed him constantly since news of the arrival of 
the Spaniards had reached his capital. Cortez greeted him, 
and the two extended courtesies in a manner which out- 
wardly professed high appreciation, but inwardly there was 
a distrustful feeling felt by each. After an interchange of 
civilities, Montezuma conducted Cortez to the quarters 
which had been prepared for his reception in the heart of 
the metropolis. In order to reach these it was necessary 
for the immense cortege to pass over the causeway again, 
and through streets thronged with thousands of men, 
women and children, who viewed with painful anxiety the 
visit of the strangers. The place assigned to the Spaniards 
was a palace of immense proportions, having a correspond- 
ingly large court. It stood in the center of the metropolis, 
and had been erected by IMontezuma's father, who, not al- 
ways feeling secure of his person, had surrounded the palace 
with a strong stone wall, surmounted with towers for de- 
fense. The proportions of this building may be under- 
stood when we know that it was ample for the accommoda- 



THE NEW WORLD. 461 

tion of seven thousand men, who found very comfortable 
lodgement in the chambers with which it was provided. 
The rooms which were assigned to Cortez were tapestried 
with the finest cotton cloths, elegantly embroidered, while 
mats were spread upon the floor, soft and downy, which 
might easily be removed for purposes of cleanliness. Cortez 
immediately set about securing himself against the pos- 
sibility of surprise or treachery, and besides keeping nearly 
the half of his army posted by night and day, he planted 
his artillery in such a manner that it would sweep every 
street leading to the palace. Nor were these precautions 
ill-advised, as subsequent events showed. 

On the following evening after his arrival, Montezuma 
paid a visit to Cortez, taking with him presents of great 
value, which he distributed among the officers and the pri- 
vates also, after which he retired to the royal audience 
chamber and there held a lengthy interview with Cortez, in 
which each professed a friendship for the other, not omit- 
ting to expatiate upon the grandeur of their respective 
countries. When these matters had been talked of to the 
satisfaction of each, Cortez conveyed to Montezuma a re- 
quest, which he claimed to have brought from his sovereign. 
Charles V., to adopt certain laws and customs which had 
obtained in Spain, and to accept the holy Catholic religion 
as superior to the bloody creed which the Mexicans pro- 
fessed. As Montezuma lent a willing ear to an explanation 
of the tenets of Christianity, Cortez was impelled to press 
his request for an abolition of the rites of human sacrifice 
and the eating of the flesh of the victims, to which Monte- 
zuma made no other reply than a nod of the head, which 
might be construed either as an acknowledgment of the 
awfulness of these rites, or a determination to continue in 
their practice. After the interview had terminated, Cortez 
ordered all his artillery, at the moment of the setting of the 



462 COLUMBUS. 

sun, to be discharged simultaneously, in the belief that 
the noise would bring Montezuma to an understanding of 
the great power which he possessed. At the sound of the 
booming guns, and sight of the dense smoke that rolled up 
in stifling volume, the Mexicans fled in terrorized amaze- 
ment, confirmed in the previously circulated opinion that 
the Spaniards were favored of the gods and fought with 
supernatural weapons, against which no human agency 
could contend. 



CHArTER XXVII. 

On the day following his spectacular entrance into the 
city, which ended with noisy demonstration of roaring can- 
non and rattle of musketry, Cortez proceeded, at the head 
of a retinue of horsemen, on a visit to the Emperor, who 
graciously met him at his palace door, and with a large 
body of police accompanied him on a visit to the important 
places of the capital. The chief object of interest which at- 
tracted the attention of the Spaniards was a gigantic pyra- 
midal temple, which rose from the center of an extended 
plain to a height of nearly 150 feet, the summit of which 
was gained by an ascent of 114 steps. It was upon this 
pyramid that bloody human sacrifices were offered up by 
the devout Mexicans of the city, and before the sacrificial 
stone, which occupied a corner of this altitudinous plain, 
was the hideous image of two idols, thickly incrusted with 
the dried blood of thousands of victims that had been 
slaughtered as a propitiation before it. On the summit was 
also an enormous gong, which the priests sounded at the 
time of the execution of their victims, the noise being made 
to drown their shrieks and groans, and to heighten the ef- 
fects of the ceremony. After viewing this horrible specta- 
cle, Cortez besought Montezuma to order an abandonment 
of the bloody rites, and expatiated upon the abominableness 
of their religion and the inefficacy of their gods ; which, 
however, instead of producing a favorable impression, caused 
Montezuma to turn away in anger, shocked at what he 
regarded as the blasphemy of his visitors' declarations, and, 

463 



464 COLUMBUS. 

in fear that a swift retribution would be wrought by the 
angered gods, he entreated Cortez to appease their wrath by 
an adjuration of his sacrilegious sentiments. 

Unwilling as yet to proceed to violence to accomplish his 
designs, Cortez hoped to counteract the influence of the 
Mexican priests by the institution of the Christian worship, 
to which end he converted one of the halls of the residence 
that had been set apart for him into a Christian chapel, 
where the rites of the Church were solemnly performed by 
Father Olmedo, and prayers were offered up for the speedy 
conversion of the heathens. 

Several days were spent inactively, until at length the 
question arose what should be their next proceedings. 
Cortez was not unmindful of the dangers which beset him, 
for, in addition to being in the center of a city whose popula- 
tion was not less than 500,000 souls, the adjacent district 
was numerously populated, and every advantage was upon 
the side of the Mexicans for an annihilation of the Spaniards, 
had they chosen to make an exhibition of their power. 

The Tlascalans, to whose inveterate enmity for the Mexi- 
cans was added the fear of punishment for their rebellion 
against the Emperor, became importunate for some action 
upon the part of Cortez that would inaugurate immediate 
hostilities, thinking that by so doing they would be enabled 
to wreak a vengeance upon their enemies similar to that 
which they had satisfied upon the Cholulans. They ac- 
cordingly sought every opportunity to impress Cortez with 
the peril of his situation, and daily advised him that the 
Mexicans were planning a strategy by which to overcome 
them. They called to his mind the fact that the causeways 
were bridged at certain intervals, which might be easily cut 
so as to prevent an escape from the Mexicans if hostilities 
were begun, and they directed his attention to many sus- 
picious actions which seemed to confirm their worst fears. 



THE NEW WORLD. 465- 

It was not long until these persuasions induced Cortez 
to adopt an expedient to prevent the fate which had been 
predicted unless averted by prompt and heroic measures. 
He therefore caused Montezuma to be seized and held as 
a hostage for the safety and peace of his soldiers, an act 
which he excused by the hostile measures adopted by some 
of the officers of Montezuma, who had laid a tribute upon 
the Totonacs, several of whom had been killed for their 
refusal to make payment of the taxes thus levied. Monte- 
zuma at first refused to submit to such indignity to his per- 
son, but yielded at length, upon the assurance that his pre- 
rogative as emperor would be in no wise interfered with, 
and that in the Spanish quarters he would be permitted to 
execute his edicts in the same manner as before. 

The holding of Montezuma as a hostage, however, proved 
to be only the beginning of greater indignities, which Cor- 
tez had foreseen could not be contiimed without involving 
the Spaniards and Mexicans in open hostility. His next 
act was the seizure of the chief who had levied tribute upon 
the Totonacs, and in revenge for the execution of those 
who had refused payments, he submitted the chief to a tor- 
ture which wrung from him a confession that he had acted 
upon his sovereign's orders. Having obtained this admis- 
sion, Cortez, not content with merely torturing the chief 
and his aids, caused them to be bound to stakes in the 
market-places of the capital, where they were burned to 
death before the gaze of the terrified inhabitants. A raid 
was then made upon the magazine of the city, from which 
was forcibly taken all the arms, consisting of javelins, 
spears, arrows and clubs, which were thrown into a pile 
and consumed, thus greatly reducing the power of resist- 
ance to his cruel conduct. Continuing his harsh measures, 
Cortez pitilessly ordered his soldiers to bind the hands and 
feet of the Emperor in iron manacles, and set him out be- 
30 



•466 COLUMBUS. 

fore his palace in the character of a common felon until 
sunset, when the shackles were with a show of magnanimity 
stricken from him. But the insult which had thus been 
offered, in addition to the inexcusable. crimes which Cortez 
had perpetrated,' while humbling the Emperor, aroused the 
indignant ire of the populace, who began to concert meas- 
ures for the annihilation of the Spaniards. But their at- 
tempt at resistance, for the time being, only resulted in the 
levying of a tribute of gold upon the whole of the Mexican 
territory, by which was exacted for the benefit of the con- 
querors a sum equal to a million of dollars. 

Things quieted down again for a while, but there was a 
constant dread in Cortez' mind that his rash acts would 
yet lead to disasters, and he continually conceived new 
means for strengthening his position. Retreat by way of 
the causeways, which at intervals might be easily destroyed, 
was so precarious that Cortez set about the building of two 
brigantines, in which to embark his troops in case it became 
necessary to suddenly abandon the city, when other avenues 
of escape were closed. With the aid of hundreds of natives, 
whose curiosity to see vessels which had never before been 
upon their waters prompted them to lend an industrious 
assistance, in a few weeks the brigantines were completed. 

Being now more securely situated than heretofore, Cortez 
resolved upon the overthrow of the bloody religion of the 
Mexicans, and the institution of Catholicism in its stead. 
He again appealed to Montezuma to renounce his false gods, 
but so deeply ingrained was his faith, that the Emperor 
turned a deaf ear to all entreaty, which so provoked Cortez 
that he ordered his soldiers to march to the temples and 
despoil them of every vestige of Paganism. At the first 
hostile demonstration thus made towardsthe destruction of 
Mexican idolatry, the Aztec priests called the multitude to 
their assistance, who, with every available weapon, hastened 



THE NEW WORLD. 467 

heroically to the defense of their religious institutions; the 
force thus mustered was so large that Cortez soon discov- 
ered how rash had been his undertaking, and withdrew his 
soldiers before any violence had been committed. 

Nine months thus passed with intermittent acts of violence 
and condescension, without any substantial gain, or an at- 
tempt to execute any radical measures, until Cortez received 
information that a large fleet and 1,500 soldiers had been 
sent by Velasquez to Mexico, under command of Spanish 
officers, with orders to seize him for his assumption of vice- 
royal honors and for other acts of insubordination. Narvaez 
was General-in-Chief of this considerable army, who, beside 
bearing orders from Velasquez, was intrusted with a mes- 
sage from Charles V., directed to Montezuma, disclaiming 
all sympathy in the acts committed by Cortez and an appeal 
to assist in driving the invaders from his country. Upon 
receipt of this information, which had been secretly con- 
veyed by a friend of Cortez after the arrival of the fleet at 
Vera Cruz, with his characteristic sagacity Cortez immedi- 
ately assembled 250 of his bravest men, leaving the re- 
mainder of his troops on guard at the Spanish capital, and 
by forced marches reached Vera Cruz in less than a week's 
journey. The troops of the fleet had been debarked with 
more than twenty pieces of artillery and eighty horses, and 
had gone into camp at the place of settlement founded by 
Cortez, to await the landing of their stores, which consumed 
considerable time. This delay enabled him to reach Vera 
Cruz before any intimation of his intentions could precede 
him, while the weather favored his designs in a surprising 
way, Cortez arrived in sight of Vera Cruz just as the 
shades of night began to envelop the landscape in darkness. 
An hour later a terrible storm arose, and the rain poured 
down in such torrents that the Spanish camp was compelled 
to be astir to save some of the stores that had been landed. 



468 COLUMBUS. 

All this favored Cortcz, and as he was a man not to waste 
opportunities, at the moment when everything was in 
greatest confusion, he rushed to the attack. Taken com- 
pletely by surprise, the Spaniards under Narvacz could 
make no resistance (for indeed they were totally unpre- 
pared) and in less than half an hour Cortez was complete 
master of the situation and received from Narvaez terms for 
the most abject submission. Instead of submitting his 
prisoners to any punishments, in a spirit of affected mag- 
nanimity he loaded them with favors, and by artful speech 
contrived to win the whole expedition over to his service ; 
and thus augmented by a force of nearly 1,500 effective men, 
all of whom were well armed, and with an ample supply of 
military stores, he started on his return journey to complete 
the subjugation of Mexico. On his way he was joined by 
two thousand more soldiers of the Totonacs, and he felt 
himself now strong enough to contend with the combined 
armies of all Mexico. 

Scarcely had he started upon his return, when news came 
to Cortez by a messenger that the Mexicans had fallen upon 
the feeble force which he had left under his sub-ofificer, 
named Alvarado, and had massacred the entire party. With 
the hope that some might have escaped, and a desire to 
execute speedy vengeance for this act of treachery, Cortez 
made no halts, but pushed on with incredible speed, vowing 
constantly to exterminate every Mexican within the capital 
as he had slaughtered his enemies at Cholula. But when 
he reached the main causeway leading to the capital, he 
found the bridges still intact and the city apparently peace- 
ful, though no one came out to receive him, nor were there 
any demonstrations to indicate that any serious event had 
transpired during his absence. When he gained his quar- 
ters, his surprise was all the greater to learn that, instead of 
Alvarado and his command having been massacred, they 



THE NEW WORLD. 469 

themselves had been the aggressors, and that for some 
fancied grievance they had descended upon the Mexicans 
while they were in the performance of their religious rites 
in the court-yard of the great temple, and had cut down 
nearly six hundred of the flower of Mexican nobility. The 
indignation of Cortez, upon receipt of this information, was 
almost boundless— though it is more than probable that he 
affected a feeling which, in reality, he did not experience. 
But before the people he showered upon Alvarado all man- 
ner of vituperation, and pronounced his conduct that of a 
madman. The only excuse which his subordinate gave for 
this atrocious act was that he had suspicions that the Mexi- 
cans were preparing to cut off his retreat and massacre his 
soldiers, though he could give no substantial reason for this 
supposition. 

This act of incredible cruelty was followed almost im- 
mediately by a desperate resolve upon the part of the Mexi- 
cans, who had already suffered the limit of indignity and 
cruelty. So, on every side arose the sound of drums, and 
there was a hurrying to and fro of the natives upon a mis- 
sion which it did not take Cortez long to interpret. His 
force now consisted of 1,200 Spaniards and 8,000 native allies, 
who were well protected by an encampment encircled by 
stone buildings ; but provisions were scarce, and the Mexi- 
cans had refused to continue their contributions. The dan- 
gers of starvation now became greater than the power of 
the Mexicans, and immediate action was necessary to avert 
a calamity which threatened the entire force with destruc- 
tion. Cortez accordingly sent 400 of his men into the 
streets to reconnoiter, but scarcely had they made their ap- 
pearance before the fortress when they were assailed by a 
large party of Mexicans, who, with cries for vengeance, 
opened fire with arrows and javelins with such effect as to 
throw the Spaniards into a wild disorder. It was with the 



470 COLUMBUS. 

greatest difficulty that they were able to fight their way 
back to the fortified quarters, having lost in the onset 
twenty-three killed and twice as many wounded. The suc- 
cess of this attack inspired the Mexicans with a new resolu- 
tion. They found that their enemies were not invulnerable, 
and cutting off the heads of the slain, they carried them 
about the city to show how easily the invaders might be 
destroyed, if the Mexicans would but act boldly and in 
concert. The fortress was now besieged by a body of prob- 
ably 50,000 Mexicans, while their forces were continuall)' 
augmented by volunteers who poured in from every part 
of the surrounding district. The artillery, which now com- 
prised twenty-five pieces, was opened up and tore great 
gaps through the assaulting force, but did not succeed in 
putting them to rout as it had done heretofore. Fighting 
for their altars and their gods, the Mexicans were inspired 
to the most extraordinary acts of valor, and twice they were 
upon the point of scaling the walls and gaining the Spanish 
quarters, and were only prevented by desperate hand-to- 
hand conflicts, in which swords, cannons and muskets of the 
Spaniards wrought dreadful havoc among the unprotected 
bodies of the besiegers. All day long this frightful conflict 
continued, until in the evening the ground was covered with 
the slain, and darkness put a stop to the horrible carnage. 

Resolved to adopt a desperate expedient and release him- 
self from an appalling situation, before dawn on the follow- 
ing morning Cortez placed himself at the head of his cavalry, 
now num.bcring lOO, and made a rush upon the enemy 
that were sullenly awaiting the light of day to renew the 
attack. Another desperate fight now took place, in which 
the Spaniards were repulsed, though not before they had 
slaughtered more than 1,000 of the Mexicans, but whose 
numbers had so increased during the night that Cortez esti- 
mates their force at above 200,000. Nor had they been 



THE NEW WORLD. 471 

inactive, for undercover of the darkness they had destroyed 
the bridges which connected portions of the causeway, thus 
cutting off retreat, while great quantities of stone had been 
carried to the housetops, whicli they poured down with 
great destruction upon the Spanish cavalry, that wounded 
where their other weapons would have been ineffective. 
Besides the desperate fighting which characterized the day, 
they set fire to a large number of houses, the conflagration 
of which added immensely to the other excitements. 

But towards evening there was a cessation of hostilities, 
both parties for a while resting upon their arms, neither 
being willing to assume the aggressive. During this inter- 
val, however, the Mexicans continued to increase, as they 
had the day before, and Cortez, who had been severely 
w^ounded in the hand by a stone, began now to appreciate 
the fact that he could only save himself through the inter- 
cession of Montezuma himself. In this dire extremity, he 
had the audacity to transmit a message to the Emperor, 
couched in the most beseeching language, deploring the 
awful carnage that had drenched the streets of his fair 
capital with blood, and begging that he would interpose his 
royal influence to put a stop to a slaughter, which, if con- 
tinued, must end in the entire destruction of the city and a 
greater num.ber of its people. 

Montezuma, who had watched with bitterest anguish the 
progress of the battle, and had seen so many thousands of 
his people slain wdiile heroically battling for their homes, 
was moved by compassion not only to hesitate, but to 
actually issue an order for the cessation of hostilities. But 
the populace was now so insanely excited that the order was 
not credited, and on the following morning the battle was 
renewed and continued through the better part of the day, 
until there lay in ghastly piles, on every avenue and house- 
top of the city, more than 50,000 dead bodies of the Mexi- 



473 COLUMBUS. 

cans. Suddenly, as if heaven itself had declared a truce, 
the tumult of battle ceased ; the Mexicans laid down their 
arms, and stood in an attitude of the most devout venera- 
tion. This instant cessation was caused b}- the appearance 
of the Emperor, who, dressed in his imperial robes, walked 
out upon the walls in front of his palace and waved his im- 
perial hand to command the attention of his loyal subjects. 
In this moment of silence he earnestly besoui^lit them to 
cease the fierce conflict which was resulting in the destruc- 
tion of so many thousands of his loyal people, giving them 
his assurance that the Spaniards would retire from the city 
if his subjects would lay down their arms and cease the 
bloody strife. During the delivery of this peaceful declara- 
tion, Cortez had sent a body-guard to stand by Montezuma 
and protect him upon the wall ; but, misconstruing this act, 
the Mexicans conceived the idea that their Emperor was 
but voicing the dictation of the Spaniards, and that he was, 
indeed, a prisoner in their liands. Their indignation and 
desire for vengeance was such that there arose a loud cry 
from the enraged ^lexicans, which was instanth' followed 
by a shower of arrows, two of which pierced the body of 
the unfortunate Emperor, and he fell back badly wounded 
into the arms of some of the bodj'-guard that had attended 
him. He was tenderly carried to the apartments of his 
capital, but so thoroughly crushed in spirit that he resolved 
no longer to live to be the subject of Spanish tyranny and 
insult: so, after his wounds had been carefully tended, and 
he had patiently submitted himself to the care of the sur- 
geon, in a moment when the attention of his attendants was 
directed elsewhere, he tore the bandages from his wounds 
and declared his resolution to die. This he carried so far 
that he refused all nourishment, and at every favorable 
opportunity he aggravated his wounds, and thus lingering 
between suffering of both mind and body, in three davs after 



THE NEW WORLD. 473 

the receipt of his injuries he was released by death from all 
the contentions of this life. 

The assault which wounded the Emperor was the signal 
for a fresh renewal of the battle, which continued now to 
rage with intense fury, nor did it abate at any time during 
the whole of the day. The Mexicans contrived to gain 
possession of a high tower which overlooked the Spanish 
quarters, from which lofty vantage they hurled down stones 
upon the Spaniards, and thus succeeded in killing several 
who were otherwise inaccessible to the weapons of the be- 
siegers. So commanding was this situation that Cortez 
saw the necessity of dislodging the enemy, and to this 
hazardous enterprise he resolved to lend his own aid. His 
left hand had been dreadfully crushed in an attack on 
the preceding day, but he ordered his shield to be bound 
to his arm and placed himself at the head of a select party 
who had been chosen to attempt the dislodgmcnt. In 
spite of a shower of stones and arrows, this heroic body 
bravely ascended until they reached a spacious platform, 
where a dreadful hand-to-hand battle now took place. 
Two Mexicans, who were members of the nobility, anxious 
to destroy Cortez, even at the sacrifice of their own lives, 
seized him by the body and made a desperate effort to drag 
him to the edge of the battlements, where they had hoped 
to hurl him and themselves to destruction below. But by 
his wonderful agility and extraordinary strength, Cortez 
contrived to break from their desperate grasp and slay 
them both, after which the other Mexicans were put to 
rout, and the tower was set on fire. 

The battle thus went on, nor did it halt when night's 
shades fell ; for everywhere the lurid flames of consuming 
buildings lighted up the scene, and enabled the combat- 
ants to continue the dreadful slaughter. Thousands had 
been slain, but thousands yet were to pay the penalty of 



474 COLUMBUS. 

heroism, and so the fires, and shrieks, and groans of bloody 
tumult continued until towards morning Cortez summoned 
the Mexican chiefs to a parley. His beautiful wife, Marina, 
acted as his interpreter, and through her he admonished 
the Mexicans to immediately submit or else suffer the en- 
tire destruction of their city and the slaughter of every 
man, woman and child who composed its population. But 
the answer was a defiant one. The Mexicans had cor- 
rectly measured the strength of the Spaniards. But, 
against their superior weapons, they were ready to measure 
their own superior numbers. 

Failing in his efforts to compromise, or to secure the 
peaceful withdrawal of his troops, while his position was 
every moment becoming more perilous, Cortez resolved to 
retreat at any hazard, since the dangers which lay ahead 
could not exceed those which encompassed him. To this 
end he set about the construction of movable towers, which, 
after a week, were so far completed that he attempted at 
midnight to withdraw under their protection. A platform 
was constructed on the top of each tower from which his 
soldiers might fight, an elevation which placed them upon 
a level with the tops of the Mexican houses, while inside 
were placed the sharp-shooters and the artiller}^, so dis- 
posed as to sweep the streets. The army thus singularly 
protected was separated into three divisions, led respect- 
ively by Sandoval at the head, Alvarado commanding the 
rear, while Cortez had charge of the central division, in 
which were placed the distinguished prisoners that he had 
made, among whom were a son and daughter of Monte- 
zuma, besides many noblemen. He had also provided a 
portable bridge, which he hoped to be of service in throw- 
ing across the breaches that had been broken in the cause- 
ways. Scarcely had this strange march of moving towers 
begun when out of the darkness poured a volley of stones 



THE NEW WORLD. 475 

and javelins that broke like hailstones upon the sides of the 
towers, and harmlessly fell upon the ground. Progress 
was slow, but the Spaniards had provided an effectual 
protection, while giving such free play for their cannons 
and muskets, that they swept down opposing obstacles and 
piled up the streets afresh with bleeding victims. Thus the 
Spaniards moved cautiously and slowly until they at length 
reached one of the broken causeways, when the portable 
bridge was let down in the hope of providing a passage. 
The head of the Spanish column succeeded in crossing, but 
when the weight of the tower with its heavy contents was 
drawn upon the superstructure, with one great crash it fell 
into the chasm, and left hundreds of Spaniards struggling 
in the water and with their foes. A greater part, however, 
by some extraordinary fortune, succeeded in escaping, and 
now, abandoning the towers, rushed towards another breach, 
planting their cannon in such a manner as to partially keep 
the pursuing Mexicans at bay. In the meantime, stones 
and timbers of every kind torn from demolished buildings 
were thrown into the breach to make a passage ; but it was 
slow work, and for two days the battle continued as before, 
the Spaniards being unable to make their escape. 

The story of this remarkable battle, which continued for 
nearly a week, is more tragic than that of Waterloo, or of 
Gettysburg, or of the Wilderness. It is so gory that pen 
runs red while writing it. It is so horrible that heart turns 
sick in its contemplation. Though the Spaniards numbered 
less than 1,500, and their loss did not exceed 500, owing to 
the protection which their armor afforded, their enemies, 
whose heroism has perhaps never been equaled in all his- 
tory, were slaughtered in numbers that are positively 
astounding, and equaled only by that of Megiddo's bloody 
f^eld. 

On the last day the wail of anguish, the groan of dying, 



476 COLUMBUS. 

the crackling of burning houses, the roar of cannon and 
musketry, the pandemonium of noise, were increased by the 
shriek of the storm that broke in wind and rain, as if in 
sympathy with the woes of the contestants. Under the 
cover of this storm, the Spaniards, having abandoned their 
towers, sought retreat through the two miles of causeway, 
and were proceeding, apparently without pursuit, when of 
a sudden their progress was stopped by an assault of natives, 
who poured up from out a thousand boats, where they had 
been lurking in anticipation of the approach of the Span- 
iards. Their attack was one of incredible fury, and the 
defense which the Spaniards made was no less terrible. 
Under the blanket of darkness, it was impossible to distin- 
guish friend from foe, and the fight went on without abate- 
ment through all the dreary hours of that dismal night, 
until Cortez, left with scarcely a hundred men, and using 
the bodies of those whom he had slaughtered to bridge the 
breaches which he had yet to cross in order to reach the 
mainland, pushed on despite the missiles of his foes. They 
at length succeeded by herculean and heroic effort in reach- 
ing the shores, where the possibility of their escape was 
increased. But behind him he left scores of his faithful 
soldiers, more than forty of whom, though all wounded, 
were taken alive and reserved for a fate as horrible as 
he had visited upon many of the unoffending Mexicans. 
Others of his men contrived to escape, and he now rallied a 
feeble force and awaited approaching dawn. 

When the sun uprose, it shone down upon a spectacle 
that wounds the eye of remembrance. Along the two 
miles' length of that causeway lay piled in confusion and 
deadly embrace friend and foe, and in the breaches were 
not only thousands of dead and distorted bodies, but bag- 
gage of every description, cannons and plundered treasure, 
while about upon the lake were seen floating fragments of 



THE NEW WORLD. 477 

everj'' character, including broken canoes and bloated 
bodies. Four thousand of the Spanish allies had given up 
their lives in this slaughter, while 870 of the Spaniards, de- 
spite the armor which they wore, had surrendered their lives 
in this horrible and long-continued battle. Cortez himself, 
though inflexible in defeat, and whose heart seemed prompt- 
ed by the most cruel passions, was unable to look upon 
such a scene without being moved by the mute appeals of 
humanity, and bowing his head, for the first time in his 
life he wept bitter tears of sorrow and disappointment. 
The Mexicans had suiTcred so seriously in the fight, how- 
ever, that there was no longer disposition to pursue him. 
They were content to wreak their vengeance upon the 
captives that had been left in their hands, and to permit a 
retreat of the remnant which they knew had received 
already a punishment which only the hardiest spirits could 
possibly survive. Cortez accordingly retreated to a large 
stone temple some distance from the lake, where he fortu 
nately found both protection and a supply of provisions. 
Here he reorganized as best he could the little force that 
was left him, and after a short rest proceeded upon the long 
journey back to Tlascala, a distance of sixty-four miles, 
where he reasonably expected provisions and relief which 
he still stood so sorely in need of. But on the way they 
were not to escape further tribulations. The tributary 
tribes of the Mexicans were now set upon their heels and 
harassed them at every step, and so effectually prevented 
them from securing food on the way that, in their extrem- 
it\', they were at times forced to kill some of the few horses 
which had survived the fight to save themselves from star- 
vation. 

While pursuing this dreary and terrible march, in pass- 
ing through a defile of the mountains, the Spanish were 
suddenly brought in sight of an enormous army of the 



478 COLUMBUS. 

enemy assembled upon a plain, awaiting to descend upon 
them. Even the stout heart of Cortez sank with despair 
before such a spectacle of vengeance. But rallying his 
nearly exhausted band around him, he animated them as 
best he could by a speech appealing to their vanity and to 
their faith in God. At the word of command they dashed 
into the great masses of serried ranks of the enemy. The 
onset of the Spaniards was so fierce that the natives recoiled 
before it, and knowing the superstitious veneration which 
the Mexicans entertained for their imperial banner, at the 
head of his force, Cortez drove directly towards it, and by 
unexampled valor he cut a pathway through the enemy, 
and at last, seizing the sacred banner from the hands of the 
bearer whom he had stricken down with his broad-sword, 
he waved it aloft and shouted praises to God for the favors 
He had bestowed. With cries of grief and rage the Mexi- 
cans immediately broke in wild tumult, and fled away to 
the mountains, in the belief that their gods had abandoned 
them, leaving twenty thousand of their dead upon the field. 
Without meeting any further obstacles, the Spaniards 
reached the territory of the Tlascalans, \vhere they were 
hospitably received and generously entertained until the 
sick and the wounded were fully recovered. It was here 
that Cortez for the first time gave any attention to his own 
wounds, which had now become so severe that he had to 
submit to an amputation of two of his injured fingers, and 
the trepanning of his skull, that had been fractured by a 
club in the hands of one of the natives, and from which 
injury he was threatened with concussion of the brain. 
But he recovered despite the dangerous character of his 
hurts, seemingly destined by fate to continue his career of 
unexampled spoliation, cruelty and insatiable ambition. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Defeat, misfortune, suffering, tribulation of any kind, 
could not repress the indomitable spirit of this extraordi- 
nary man, and despite the calamities through which he had 
passed, Cortez in his sorest hour resolved to seek a means 
to continue the enterprise which had apparently ended so 
disastrously. When able to rise from a bed of suffering, he 
began recruiting his force from among the Tlascalans until 
he had secured the co-operation of several thousand, after 
which he returned again to Vera Cruz, where he enlisted as 
many more of the Totonacs, He sent a dispatch also to 
the sovereign of Spain, giving specious reports of his acts 
while in Mexico, and assigning as a reason for an inyasion 
of the territory his desire to win souls to God and to 
magnify the splendor of his sovereign. At the same time, 
or directly after his return to Vera Cruz, two ships were 
seen approaching the harbor, that had been dispatched 
by the governor of Cuba with supplies for Narvaez, report 
of whose conflict with Cortez had not yet been received. 
No sooner had these vessels dropped their anchors than 
they were visited by Cortez, whose influence seems to have 
been irresistible, and by his flattering promises he induced 
the crew^s to enter his service and surrender to him all the 
stores that had been brought over. Three vessels, which 
had also been dispatched by the governor of Jamaica to 
conduct an independent expedition of discovery and con- 
test, also cast anchor at Vera Cruz about this time, and these 
likewise fell into the hands of Cortez, and the men compos- 
ing the expedition enlisted under his banner. Another ship, 

479 



48o COLUMBUS. 

that had been fitted out by some merchant, arrived from 
Spain with military stores, the cargo of which Cortez pur- 
chased, and then persuaded the crew to join his armv. He 
had also sent agents to Hispaniola and Jamaica, whose 
commissions were so successful that in a short while they 
returned with 200 soldiers, 80 horses, two cannons, and a 
large supply of ammunition and muskets. In this manner 
he succeeded in raising his force to 818 foot soldiers, 86 
cavalrymen, three heavy guns and 15 field-pieces. Besides 
these recruits, he enlisted the services of 8,000 men of burden, 
chiefly fron among the Tlascalans and Totonacs, and pro- 
vided material for the construction of a fleet of thirteen 
brigan tines, which were to be carried a distance of sixty 
miles over rough roads on the shoulders of men, for use 
upon the lake about the city of Mexico. Thus provided 
for renewal of the siege of Mexico, and with a determina- 
tion to accomplish the subjugation of the territory, he re- 
turned to the outskirts of the city and began his prepara- 
tions to carry it by assault. 

At the death of Montezuma, his brother, Cuitlahua, suc- 
ceeded to the emperorship, and being more warlike than 
Montezuma in disposition, it was under his energies that the 
Spaniards had been driven from the metropolis. Directly 
after the retreat of the invaders, he set about fortifying his 
capital and recruiting and drilling his army that had now 
become familiar with European weapons. He also sent an 
embassy to the Tlascalans, urging them to remit their for- 
mer enmity and unite with him against the common foe, 
who, without their assistance, would be helpless. But his 
overtures to his old enemies were without effect, and in ad- 
dition to the other woes from which he suffered, that had 
been introduced by the Spam'ards, small-pox made its ap- 
pearance in his territory, which, breaking out suddenly, 
swept like a besom of destruction throughout the land, 



THE NEW WORLD. 4$t 

until it became a pestilence so fearful that it threatened the 
depopulation of the entire country. Within a few weeks* 
time several cities were plague-stricken, and the living were 
insufficient to bury the dead, so rapid were its ravages. It 
was not long until the disease invaded the Mexican capital, 
and one of its first victims was the Emperor, Cuitlahua. 
His death intensified the panic, and but for the fact that 
several Spaniards also succumbed to the epidemic, the Mexi- 
cans would have no doubt abandoned their city in the be- 
lief, which for a while obtained, that this disease, of which 
they had never before heard, was another supernatural aid 
employed by the Spaniards for their destruction. 

Cuitlahua was succeeded by Guatemozin, a son-in-law of 
the late Montezuma, who, though only twenty-four years 
of age, quickly proved himself more heroic, resourceful and 
indomitable than his predecessors. With an admirable con- 
ception of the exigencies which threatened his crown, Guate- 
mozin set resolutely about repairing the damage wrought 
by Cortez, and putting his capital in a more perfect state of 
defense. Outwardly manifesting a friendly spirit for the 
Spaniards left in the countiy, he craftily hid his designs, or 
kept them from reaching Cortez. His army, which was 
recruited to a force exceeding 200,000, was carefully drilled, 
stores of provisions laid in, barricades erected on the several 
causeways, and a large fleet of canoes built to co-operate 
with the land forces, their use having been proved in the 
battle of the dismal night. 

Cortez, having completed his preparations for another 
siege of the capital, by having provided himself with an 
immense supply of military stores and a largely increased 
force, started on his return for Mexico, presenting a pag- 
eantry that attracted to his banner 200,000 Tlascalans and 
Totonacs, with which army he felt himself equal to any 
undertaking. He proceeded directly to Tepeaca, a con- 
31 



482 COLUMBUS. 

siderable town on the northern shore of the lake, where he 
put together the timbers of his fleet of thirteen brigantines, 
each of which he manned with twenty-five Spaniards, and 
set on the prows a cannon, so as to command a sweep of 
the lake. 

A few feeble efforts were made to harass the Spaniards 
while they were at Tepeaca, but it was not until the squad- 
ron was ready and the sails were spread for crossing the 
lake to enter upon a siege of the capital, that an attack 
of any pretension was made. Guatemozin, perceiving how 
these vessels might be employed to his great disadvantage, 
sent against them a flotilla of more than three hundred 
canoes, each manned by twelve natives armed with bows 
and arrows, thinking to overpower the Spaniards and destroy 
the ships by sheer force of numbers. But to his horror he 
saw his armada run down by the large and fleeter vessels, 
while a hail of grape-shot and showers of arrows from the 
Spanish cross-bowmen literally annihilated the fleet of 
canoemen, leaving the waters red with their blood and 
choked with their mutilated bodies. A wail of anguish 
went up from the Mexicans at this destruction of their hopes, 
but they were not long permitted to peaceably indulge their 
lamentations, or to make their sacrifices unmolested to their 
gods, for, having destroyed their fleet, Cortez now began 
the siege in earnest. He divided his army into three divi- 
sions, under command respectively of Sandoval, Alvarado 
and Olid, who were to begin the attack upon three separate 
causeways, while Cortez himself assumed command of the 
brigantines, and co-operated with the land forces by attack- 
ing from the sides. The bridges over the causeways were 
obstructed, as before described, bj^ formidable barriers, be- 
hind which the Mexicans were stationed in immense force. 
But by concentrating a heavy artillery fire upon them, these 
were gradually battered down, and every foot of the way 



THE NEW WORLD. 483 

was then hotly contested by hand-to-hand conflicts. At the 
moment of beginning the assault, the fleet opened fire from 
the side and slaughtered thousands, whose bodies interposed 
additional obstacles, which could only be surmounted by 
throwing them over again into the water. 

The obstinacy of the Mexicans, despite the frightful 
slaughter to which they were subjected, was so astonishing 
to Cortez that he feared disaster even at the time of his 
most effective assault, and to provide means for a retreat, 
in case of necessity, he carefully bridged all the breaches, 
and threw out a force to protect his rear. But at length 
the Mexicans relaxed the vigor of their defense, and by 
inaction lured the Spaniards into the belief that their victory 
was already secure, which so excited their hopes that, 
unmindful of possible treachery, they rushed across the 
remaining portions of the causeway and directly into the 
city. The strategy which Guatemozin had thus employed 
directly became apparent, for suddenly the alarm drum 
sounded from the summit of the great temple, which was 
the signal for the collection of the full fighting force of the 
capital, who now, in concert, threw themselves in a fierce 
charge upon the surprised Spaniards. So sudden and 
irresistible was the onslaught that both the Spanish foot and 
horsemen were alike thrown into the utmost confusion and 
driven in great numbers back into the last chasm which 
they had neglected to bridge. For the moment defense- 
less, the Spaniards fell in great numbers, victims to the 
showers of arrows and javelins of their encouraged enemies. 
More than a score were killed outright, while twice as many 
more were wounded and fell into the hands of the Mexicans, 
besides the loss of a thousand of their allies. This awful 
and unexpected reverse became presently still more dread- 
ful, when the Spaniards viewed the frightful fate that was 
about to overtake their captured comrades. 



484 COLUMBUS. 

The darkness of night had now settled down, but towards 
the middle watches a great light suddenly appeared upon 
the summit of the temple, and a spectacle speedily followed 
which fairly froze the blood of the Spaniards, as they 
plainly saw the awful rites that were now being performed. 
Amid a great gathering of priests and waving plumes of 
soldiery that had assembled in great number upon the lofty 
plain of the p3:ramid, were to be seen, by the aid of the 
torches, the white bodies of the Spanish victims, as they 
were stripped by their captors and prepared for the sacrifices 
which were now to be offered up. 

The horrified Spaniards watched their wretched com- 
rades and saw each prisoner stretched upon the sacrificial 
stone, and heard the despairing shrieks that went up as the 
bodies were gashed with the obsidian knife of the priest, 
and the quivering hearts torn out and held aloft as offerings 
to their gods. Diaz, the historian of the expedition, and 
who was an eye-witness of this frightful scene, gives us the 
following soul-sickening description : 

" On a sudden our ears were struck by the horrific sound 
of the great drum, the timbrels, horns and trumpets of the 
temple. We all directed our eyes thither, and, shocking to 
relate, saw our unfortunate countrymen driven by blows to 
the place where they were to be sacrificed, which bloody 
ceremony was accompanied by the dismal sound of all the 
instruments of the temple. We perceived that when they 
had brought the wretched victims to the flat summit of the 
body of the temple, they put plumes upon their heads and 
made them dance before their accursed idols. When they 
had done this, they laid them upon their backs on the stone 
used for the purpose, when they cut out their hearts alive, 
and having presented them yet palpitating to their gods, 
they drew the bodies down the steps by the feet, where 
they were taken by others of their priests." 



THE NEW WORLD. 485 

The elation of the Mexicans at the success of their on- 
slaught was further manifested by cutting off the heads of 
the prisoners whom they had thus sacrificed, which they 
sent to neighboring provinces as a proof that their gods, 
now appeased by the offering of blood, had abandoned the 
Spaniards and concerted their destruction. The Pagan 
priests also predicted that in eight days the enemy would 
be entirely destroyed, and that Mexico would rise from her 
tribulations to greater glory than had ever before dawned 
upon the people. So great was the general confidence 
placed in this prophecy, that the native allies of Cortez began 
to waver in their allegiance, and to prevent their desertion 
in a body he was compelled to remain inactive until the 
period set for the calamity should have passed. When the 
eight days were ended, and the gods had not fulfilled the 
prediction which the priests boastfully declared would 
terminate the conflict, Cortez seized the occasion to taunt 
the Mexicans with their ignorant credulity and false reliance, 
and to claim the favor of Almighty God, who extended His 
protection and conferred power upon the Spaniards. So 
immediate was the effect of this declaration, which seemed 
to be proved by the circumstances, that the Tlascalans not 
only renewed their adherence, but other natives of the 
adjacent country came flocking to his standard, and thus 
increased his force by the addition of nearly 50,000 more 
active warriors. 

So great now was his army, while so obstinate continued 
to be the resistance of the Mexicans, who, for a while, 
effectually prevented his progress towards the citadel, that 
a famine broke out among the besiegers, as well as among 
the besieged, and to the horrors which had been perpetrated 
by shot, and arrow, and lance, and javelin, were now added 
terrible feasts of cannibalism, a practice easily instituted by 
reason of the custom which had long prevailed among the 



486 COLUMBUS. 

natives of devouring the bodies of their victims at the sacri- 
ficiai feasts. 

But gradually, almost inch by inch, the Spaniards pushed 
forward, breaking down, but only after the most heroic 
measures, such barricades as were erected in their paths, 
until after the expiration of nearly two months' time the 
broad avenues of the city were gained. But here every 
house was a fortress, from the top of which stones were 
thrown down, while windows were used by the Mexicans 
from which to pour their hail of arrows upon the invaders. 
The firebrand was therefore again applied, being the only 
means of dislodging the enemy, until half the town was in 
flames. At the same time the brigantines kept a careful 
patrol of the lake, to prevent the escape by canoes of any 
of the inhabitants, and continued a desultory fire from the 
cannons upon buildings where bodies of the Mexicans had 
taken refuge. 

Though Cortez was gradually and surely reaching the 
heart of the Mexican capital, he was touched with the 
frightful misery being inflicted alike upon his own army 
and the Mexicans, and time and again sent messages to 
Guatemozin, demanding in the name of humanity the capit- 
ulation of the city. But to each an indignant and defiant 
reply was returned, and the unequal fight went on. The 
three divisions had accomplished a passage of the causeways, 
and had concentrated in the great square of the city, from 
which avenues radiated in all directions. Here cannons 
were planted, and the streets were kept clear of moving 
bodies, since to appear in such exposed places meant certain 
death. In this desperate situation the Mexicans at length 
adopted an expedient for securing the safety of their be- 
loved monarch. Soliciting a truce, upon the ground that 
it was necessary to remove the great piles of corpses that 
were polluting the streets, they utilized the time which was 



THE NEW WORLD. 487 

thus granted in prepiiring for a secret removal of their 
Emperor to the main shores. Accordingly, he embarked 
in a beautiful canoe, with several of the nobles of the capital, 
and was rowed swiftly across the lake. But, anticipating a 
ruse of this character, Cortez sent one of his brigantines in 
pursuit, which intercepted the canoe before it had gone a 
mile upon its way. Cross-bowmen crowded the prow of the 
vessel ready to discharge a volley of arrows at the occupants 
of the canoe, when, seeing the peril in which their Emperor 
was now placed, the nobles arose and anxiously besought 
them not to fire, confessing that the Emperor was in the 
boat with them who desired to surrender. The canoe was 
brought alongside, and Guatemozin, at the command of 
Cortez, was taken on board the brigantine and conveyed 
to the shore, with the hope that in an interview he might 
be persuaded to surrender the city and prevent further car- 
nage. Imagine the surprise of the Spanish commander 
when the Emperor, instead of humbling himself, as he might 
have been supposed to do, wore a proud and imperious air, 
and grasping the dagger which Cortez wore by his side, in 
the most tragic manner presented it again, and besought 
him to plunge it into his bosom and thus end a miserable life. 
Cortez endeavored to console him by assurances that he 
should not be treated as a captive, but rather as a depend- 
ent upon the clemency of the greatest monarch of Europe, 
who would soon restore him not only to liberty but place 
him again upon the throne which he had so valiantly de- 
fended. But the Mexicans had been too often deceived by the 
specious words of the Spaniards to place any confidence in 
present assurances, and understanding the perfidy and treach- 
ery which had marked every act thus far of the invaders, 
Guatemozin asked no clemency for himself, but begged that 
Cortez would be merciful to his suffering people and treat 
with proper respect the noble ladies who were with him, 



488 COLUMBUS. . 

The capture of the Emperor and the deplorable straits to 
which the Mexicans were now subjected so completely dis- 
couraged them, that they abandoned all further defense and 
permitted the victorious Spaniards to have full and complete 
possession of the destroyed city. 

A period of seventy-five days had been spent in almost 
incessant conflict, during which time scarcely an hour passed 
that had not been characterized by some furious battle. 
During this unexampled siege it is estimated that not less 
than 140,000 Mexicans perished, while nearly 400 Spaniards 
and not less than 25,000 of their allies met alike fate. The 
streets were so choked with the dead and dying that, to the 
miseries of famine, a plague of disease quickly followed. 
Singular to relate, the epidemic of small-pox seems to have 
suddenly abated, but greater horrors took its place, and but 
for prompt measures in disposing of the dead, it is probable 
that scarcely a Spaniard would have been left to tell the 
story of this unexampled siege. For three whole days all 
the surviving Mexicans and the allies of Cortez were en- 
gaged conveying the dead to the hills for interment, and 
this gruesome employment did not stop either night or day 
until it was completed. The streets were then purified by 
the building of large bonfires and the consumption of such 
debris as lay scattered about, after which Cortez began a 
search for the large treasures which he had confidently ex- 
pected to secure. 

It was on the 13th of August, 1521, that the city was 
surrendered into his hands, on which date it may be said 
that the great empire of Mexico perished, and became 
thereafter a colony of Spain. 

For a week his search through buildings, and cellars, and 
channels of every description continued, but Cortez was 
only able to collect of all kinds of treasure a sum not ex- 
ceeding in value $100,000, This small amount of spoils 



THE NEW WORLD. 4^9 

was such a disappointment to the Spaniards that the\- be- 
came clamorous for the adoption of means that would com- 
pel Guatemozin to disclose where his riches were secreted. 
To their inquiries he responded that nearly the whole had 
been conveyed to the center of the lake in boats, and there 
sunk to such depths that recover}^ was impossible. But, 
not satisfied v,ith this answer, and believing that torture 
might wring from him a confession that much of the treas- 
ure v.as yet recoverable from some readily accessible place 
of the city, the more turbulent of the Spaniards became 
importunate in their demands that such disclosure be forced 
from him. To this proposition Cortez at first opposed a 
vigorous refusal, but as the disaffection of his troops and 
their clamor became greater, he was at length reluctantly 
compelled to accede to their horrible demands. Accord- 
ingly, the unhappy monarch, and the cacique of Tacuba, 
who was the highest ofncer of the Emperor, were brought 
to the market-place, and their feet being first drenched with 
oil, were exposed to the burning coals of a hot fire until the 
soles were entirely roasted. The Emperor bore his suffer- 
ings with such fortitude as to add luster to a name which 
had already been ennobled by his heroism in conducting 
the defense of his capital. Not once did he give voice to 
the excruciating agony which he must have suffered, which 
conduct so affected Cortez that with his own hands he 
rescued the imperial sufferer, and declared that, whatever 
might be the sacrifice to himself, the horror should not be 
continued in his presence. 

Cortez now set about restoring the capital, and in making 
some amends for the inexcusable ruin that he had wrought. 
Though beset by perplexities, through information and 
threatenings which had reached him that Velasquez was 
concerting measures to bring him to punishment for the 
power which he had without authority assumed, he never- 



490 COLUMBUS. 

theless set his men to work, with the aid of their allies, to 
rebuild the fallen capital. The labor went on without inter- 
ruption, and so speedily that in a few months there arose 
out of the ashes of Mexico new buildings, in many points 
equaling in grandeur those which they replaced ; at the 
same time Cortez constructed for himself a palace which 
has rarely been exceeded for splendor. But while engaging 
in this restoration of the capital, he reduced the natives to 
a condition of servitude which presently developed into the 
most abject slavery, from which the Tlascalans and Totonacs 
alone escaped. The poor natives were compelled to do their 
work under the lash, to labor in the mines, to till the fields, 
and to engage in all the arts under the hand of the most 
cruel and exacting taskmasters. For this audacious and 
cruel abuse of a sudden power Cortez has never been ex- 
cused, and in the eyes of civilization never can be excused, 
and it will remain, along with the other dark blots upon his 
character, the one supreme blemish which beclouds all the 
glory which might otherwise brighten his name. 

Occasionally the natives in remote districts rebelled 
under the harsh treatment to which they were subjected, 
and in one instance, in the province of Paluco, the number 
of rebellious subjects exceeded 70,000 warriors, who arose 
with the intention of massacring their masters, and who had 
ambitious hopes even of uniting the natives of the entire 
territory for an expulsion of the Spaniards. So formidable 
did the insurrection become, that Cortez placed himself at 
the head of an army of 130 horsemen, 250 infantry and 
10,000 Mexicans, \vith which he made a forced march, and 
engaged the rebellious subjects in such a hot contest that 
the greater part of them were slaughtered, and such a signal 
victory secured that no subsequent efforts of any consider- 
able character were made by the Mexicans to regain theif 
freedom, 



THE NEW WORLD. 491 

For more than four years Cortez devoted all his energies 
to a rebuilding of the Mexican capital, and to a zealous 
effort for the conversion of the natives to Catholicism, and 
so successful was this attempt that Mexico became, under 
his rule, more magnificent than ever before ; and the natives 
gradually abandoned the bloody rites of their ancient wor- 
ship, and under the influence of the Spanish priests became 
amenable to the Church. Numbers of priests were brought 
over from Spain, and twenty-five churches erected within 
the city, while others were instituted in the surrounding 
country. These had such influence that the natives ulti- 
mately adopted Catholicism as their religion, to which they 
have continued to adhere to the present time. 

During the quiet life which Cortez lived during these 
years in Mexico, his amiable native wife, Marina, had borne 
him a son, whose instruction had been his constant care, in 
the hope that his mantle might in time descend upon him. 
In the midst of these pleasant anticipations, he was sur- 
prised by the sudden appearance of Donna Catalina, the 
Spanish lady whom he had married in Cuba, who had come 
over, accompanied by her brother, seeking her recreant and 
long-absent husband. Cortez, affecting a pious regard for 
the tenets of the religion which he professed, could not 
discard his lawful wife, and made pretensions of great joy 
at having been thus reunited to her. But at the expiration 
of three months she died suddenly, some say from a natural 
cause, but more suspicious minds entertain the belief that 
her life was cut short by the agency of poison. 

Peace had spread her white wings over the fair territory 
of Mexico, and Cortez was permitted for a while to enjoy 
her benefactions. But to one of his restless spirit, designs 
and ambitions would not allow a long continuance of this 
peaceful and happy state. Charges he knew had been pre- 
pared against him by Velasquez, and industrious enemies 



492 COLUMBUS. 

were at work at the Spanish Court to divest him of the glory 
and honors which he had acquired. To secure the favor of 
the Spanish sovereign, he therefore not only sent emissaries 
to the court at Madrid, but prepared elaborate reports of 
all the adventures, discoveries and events that had befallen 
him from the time of his departure from Cuba until his 
subjugation of the Mexican Empire, in which he did not 
omit to show the great advantages which had accrued to 
Spain through his efforts, and the inestimable riches which 
he had obtained in his conquests, and which, under proper 
convoy, he promised would be sent as an offering to his 
sovereign. 

These reports placated whatever hostile feeling might 
have been directed towards Cortez at the Spanish Court, 
and reposing again in the confidence which he had inspired 
on every side, but still ambitious to acquire greater honors, 
he projected an expedition against Honduras by which he 
hoped to add new lands to the Spanish crown. He accord- 
ingly sent Christoval de Olid to found a colony in that 
country. But this man, while he had been an effective 
commander in the siege of Mexico, was little qualified to 
undertake such an enterprise; for, flattered by the little 
power which had thus been placed in his hands, no sooner 
had he formed the nucleus of a colony than he threw off his 
dependence upon Cortez, as the latter had upon Velasquez, 
and asserted his independence of all authority save that of 
the Spanish crown. Report of this assumption of authority 
reached Cortez, who immediately sent another expedition, 
under Las Casas, with five ships and a hundred Spanish 
soldiers, to arrest the disobedient officer. This expedition 
sailed away over a distance of 2,000 miles to the Bay of 
Honduras, and arrived suddenly before the town which 
Olid had founded, and which, in a spirit of religious fervor, 
he had named Triumph of the Cross. Olid was taken 



THE NEW WORLD. 493 

unawares, and after a very short engagement sent a humble 
message to Las Casas, begging for a truce that would enable 
them to confer upon the terms of surrender. Consent to 
this request proved disastrous to the expedition, for on the 
same night a tempest arose, which wrecked all the ships, 
and in which thirty of the crew perished. Las Casas man- 
aged to escape with the others of his party, but, disregard- 
ing the truce, Olid, who had now gathered his forces 
together, seized them and gave them the alternative of 
death or taking an oath of allegiance to his service. Las 
Casas chose the latter, but, feeling justified in any perfidy 
as an offset to that which Olid had practiced, he finally 
succeeded in forming a conspiracy, and seizing Olid, with- 
out even the preliminaries of a court-martial, ordered him 
beheaded. 

Information of the wreck of the vessels by some means 
reached Cortez, but he was not apprised of any of the sub- 
sequent proceedings, and so incensed was he at the conduct 
of Olid in violating his truce that he resolved to lead an 
expedition himself and bring a dreadful punishment upon 
the violator of his authority. At the head of 100 Spanish 
horsemen, fifty infantry and 3,000 Mexican soldiers, Cortez 
left Mexico on the 12th of October, 1524, for Honduras, 
which would necessitate a land march of 1,500 miles. With 
the fear that in his absence Guatemozin and the cacique of 
Tacuba, whom he had so tortured, might instigate a rebel- 
lion, he decided to take those two as captives with him. 
Several Catholic priests also accompanied the expedition 
with the purpose of spreading the teachings of the Church 
among the heathen tribes of Central America. Marina, his 
native wife, also bore him company, as her services were 
indispensable as interpreter. But Cortez, looking forward 
to an alliance with some noble family of Spain, to relieve 
himself from the embarrassment of a native wife, delivered 



494 COLUMBUS. 

her ill marriage to a Castilian knight named Don Juan 
Xamarillo, and, as some amends for his conduct, he assigned 
to the newly married couple the most valuable estate in the 
province of Marina, through which the route to Honduras 
lay. History makes no further mention of Marina, but her 
son, known as Don Martin Cortez, through the patronage 
of his father, became one of the most prominent grandees 
of Spain, filling many posts of opulence and honor ; but he 
was at last suspected of treason against the home govern- 
ment, and shamefully put to the torture in the Mexican 
capital some time after the death of his father. 

This march of 1,500 miiles by Cortez was one of the most 
terrible ever undertaken by any commander. The hard- 
ships, perils and starvation which beset them were almost 
incredible, as we read them in the reports made by Diaz, 
who was an enforced member of the expedition. Nor was 
it free from the outrages which characterized the conduct 
of Cortez from the first moment that he landed on Mexi- 
can soil. Among his other crimes, during this march he 
seized a pretext for ridding himself of Guatemozin and the 
Tacuban cacique. Pretending that he had received authen- 
tic information of efforts being made by these two unhappy 
captives to incite the natives along the way to revolt, he 
required no further proofs than his belief in the truth of 
such report, and in the most hurried manner hung them 
upon a tree by the wayside, where they were left suspended, 
to become the prey of carrion birds. 

Cortez w^as absent nearly three years upon this expedi- 
tion, and when at last he contrived to reach the colony 
planted at the village known as Triumph of the Cross, he 
found only a few stragglers, and these at peace and ready 
to render him a faithful obedience, while nearly half of those 
who started with him had perished on the way. Cortez 
then embarked for Cuba, where he was received with great 



THE NEW WORLD. 495 

demonstrations of respect, but he remained there only a 
short while, returning again to the Mexican capital, where 
the people hailed him as one come back from the dead, and 
offered him the most obsequious honors, to Avhich he was 
not wholly unentitled. 

The last days of Cortez were naturally his most unhappy 
ones. He brooded over the crimes which he had perpe- 
trated, over his indefensible subjection to slavery of the peo- 
ple whom he had invaded and despoiled ; and, as evil is its 
own avenger, we are not surprised that Cortez should be 
overwhelmed with troubles in his last days. He had now 
an ample fortune, but his enemies were still active in their 
efforts to bring him to the justice which had long been de- 
layed. So serious were these charges, that Cortez finally 
decided to go to Spain in person and answer before Charles 
v., which he did with such address and cunning that he not 
only succeeded in relieving himself from the odium that had 
been heaped upon him by many of the most influential 
members of the Spanish Court, but for a while he seems to 
liave thoroughly ingratiated himself into the favor of the 
Spanish sovereign, who not only knighted him, but made 
him Governor-General of Mexico for life. During his visit 
to Spain he also formed an alliance, through the niece of the 
Duke dc Bcjar, with one of the most distinguished families 
in Spain, and the marriage ceremony was honored by the 
presence of Charles V, and his Queen. 

With his new bride in 15 30 Cortez returned to Mexico 
and occupied the magnificent palace which he had built 
some few years before. But scarcely had he departed, when 
his enemies, again obtaining the ear of the Spanish sover- 
eign, at length made such representations, and presented 
such proofs, that they persuaded him to recall the commis- 
sion issued to Cortez, and to not only appoint a new Gov- 
ernor-General, but bring him to the bar of public judgment 



49^ COLUMBUS. 

and tri^il upon several of the old charges which had been 
preferred, and additional ones that had been framed after 
his departure. Ignorant of the proceedings which had thus 
been instituted against him, Cortez squandered nearly the 
whole of his wealth in fruitless expeditions, sent out for 
further discoveries and the founding of new colonies ; and 
when the ambassadors of the court of Charles V. at last 
reached the Mexican capital, they found Cortez absent on 
one of his ambitious enterprises, and had to wait a period of 
nearly one year for his return. By them he was now 
divested of his honors, and thrown upon the world a poor 
and prematurely old man, with whose misfortunes very few 
sympathized, while many seized the occasion to wreak a 
vengeance which had long rankled in their bosoms ; for 
Cortez by his vigorous, and not always humane, actions had 
made many enemies, not only at the Spanish Court, but in 
Cuba and the Mexican capital as well. Having spent his 
fortune in what he declared were efforts to advance the in- 
terests of his sovereign, in his poverty he was induced to 
return again to his native land in 1540 and make a personal 
appeal to Charles V. for a reimbursement of moneys which 
he had expended in his service. But though he was gra- 
ciously received, his petition met wMth little consideration, 
though every word of promise he took as an encouragement, 
and with lingering hopes he remained in Spain nearly two 
years. He was at last a pitiable spectacle, moneyless and 
friendless, with nothing but the glamour of earlier heroic days 
to keep him from the most complete obscurity. 

Crushed in spirit, all hope at last disappeared, and Cor- 
tez resolved to return again to Mexico, where it were better 
for him to die in the remembrance of the people he had 
conquered than to perish in neglect in the land of his birth. 
He had proceeded as far as Seville, w^hen he was overcome 
by his melancholy, which took a fatal turn, and he was un- 



THE NEW WORLD. 497 

able to continue his journey any further. Realizing that 
death was near at hand, he made and executed his will in a 
manner that manifested the continued vigor of his iron 
will. He left nine children, five of whom were born out of 
wedlock, among whom he equally divided the small prop- 
erty which he possessed on the outskirts of Mexico. Not 
being content with the poor accommodations provided for 
him at Seville, at the entreaty of his son, who accompanied 
him, he was removed to the neighboring village of Cas- 
tilleja. There, on the 2d day of December, 1547, he died in 
the sixty-third year of his age, so completely neglected that 
only his faithful son was present during the last hour. Im- 
mediately upon his death there was a reaction among the 
public in his favor, and he seemed suddenly to have been 
magnified in the eyes of every one in Spain. A vast con- 
course of people attended his obsequies, and he was buried 
in great pomp in the tomb of the Duke of Madina Sidonia, 
at Seville. Five years later his remains were disinterred 
and removed to Mexico by his son Martin, who deposited 
them in the family vault in the monastery at Tezcuco, 
where they remained for sixty-seven years and until dis- 
turbed again in 1629 and deposited beneath the Church of 
St. Francis ; here they reposed in peace until they were for 
the third time resurrected, in 1794, and transferred to the 
Hospital of Our Lady of the Conception, which Cortez had 
founded and endowed. The remains when last disinterred 
were deposited in a glass coffin, bound with bars of iron, 
and over them a splendid monument was reared in com- 
memoration alike of his fidelity to the Church, his extension 
of Christianity among the pagans of the New World, and 
of the unexampled military skill and spirit which he ex- 
hibited. 

THE END. 



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lRBMj'22 



